Thierry Neuville best time at shakedown in Poland

The weather conditions did not make the pilots' task easy this Thursday morning during the shakedown of the Rally from poland. The mud appeared making the 4,90 km of the sector chosen for this training special very slippery.

Si Ott Tänak (Ford) quickly rose to the forefront, it was finally Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) who concluded with the reference time in 2'12″1, after three passes and two tenths better than Tänak.

The major trifecta is completed by the Hyundai i20 of Hayden Paddon, six tenths behind his Belgian teammate. The world champion Sébastien Ogier (Ford) signs the fourth final time in 2'13″1 and precedes the first Toyota Yaris of Jari-Matti Latvala, and the third Hyundai i20 of Dani Sordo.

The top 10 is completed by Esapekka Lappi (Toyota), Mads Ostberg (Ford), Juho Hänninen (Toyota) and Teemu Suninen, who makes his debut in the Ford Fiesta WRC - M-Sport on this Eastern European event.

The first Citroën C3 appears at the gates of the top 10 with Andreas Mikkelsen, author of a time equal to Suninen, and ahead of the Ford Fiesta of Elfyn Evans and the two other C3s of Stéphane Lefebvre and Craig Breen. Pontus Tidemand places his Skoda Fabia R5 in 15th position, and is at the forefront in WRC-2. Note that the session was interrupted for a time due to poorly placed spectators on the side of the road, Michèle Mouton, WRC manager, observing the situation herself.

#shakedown #rallypoland is not running at the moment. Dont know why exactly but safety issue to check? pic.twitter.com/GRxAWxKW3R

— Akiko JML fani (@akikojmlfani) June 29, 2017

The first stage of the Rally Poland will be contested this evening from 19:08 p.m., with the Mikolajki Arena super-special (2,5 km).

Shakedown ranking Rally Poland:

1. Thierry Neuville – Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20): 2’12″1
2. Ott Tanak – Martin Järveoja (Ford Fiesta) at 0″3
3. Hayden Paddon – Seb Marshall (Hyundai i20) at 0″6
4. Sébastien Ogier – Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta) at 1″0
5. Jari-Matti Latvala – Mikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris) at 1″2
6. Dani Sordo – Marc Marti (Hyundai i20) at 1″7
7. Esapekka Lappi – Janne Ferme (Toyota Yaris) at 2″1
8. Mads Ostberg – Ola Floene (Ford Fiesta) at 2″4
9. Juho Hänninen – Kaj Lindström (Toyota Yaris) at 2″6
10. Teemu Suninen – Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta) at 3″1

15. Pontus Tidemand – Jonas Andresson (Skoda Fabia R5) at 12″7 (1st WRC-2)