Tänak and Evans tied after Shakedown

The Shakedown has delivered its verdict and the least we can say is that it was close. Indeed, Ott Tänak (Hyundai) and Elfyn Evans (Toyota) n’ont pas réussi à se départager sur les routes de l’île italienne. Les deux hommes ont signé les deux meilleures marques du jour avec un chrono de 2’13“6.

Constantly improving during his outings during the day, Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) settled for third place in the Shakedown. With a reference of 2’14”4, the Habs were relegated to 8 tenths of the leading duo. Note the good performance of Pierre-Louis Loubet, fifth in his Hyundai i20.

In the lead for part of this first day of driving, Gus Greensmith (Ford) finally finished 8th. He set his best time during his fourth and final outing of the day with a mark of 2’15”4.

Note that Kalle Rovanperä only came out once this Thursday. In the lead after the first pass, the Finn went off the track after the finish and ended up on the roof. Work was done on the car and the Toyota driver was not seen again all day. Nothing to worry about for the rest of the weekend, normally.

In WRC2, it was Mads Østberg (Citroën) who climbed to the top of the rankings. With a time of 2'20"8 obtained during his second pass of this Shakedown, the Norwegian beat the local Umberto Scandola (Hyundai) and the Frenchman Nicolas Ciamin (Citroën).