Thierry Neuville takes charge in Finland

Thierry Neuville was the fastest this Thursday evening in Finland for the first opening super-special of the Scandinavian event.

The pilot Hyundai Motorsport signed the reference time for the 2,31 km on the program in 1'47"3, the only driver under 1'48". Ott Tänak (Toyota), best time in the shakedown this morning, failed by seven tenths and took his teammate Kris Meeke in his wake, trailing 1″2.

Sébastien Ogier places the first Citroën C3 in fourth position at 1″3 and precedes Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) for the top 5. Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota), Teemu Suninen (M-Sport Ford) and Craig Breen (Hyundai) finished with the same time, 2″4 behind Neuville.

Esapekka Lappi (Citroën) set the ninth fastest time ahead of Kalle Rovenperä (Skoda Fabia R5), dominator of the R5s. Gus Greensmith, who replaces Elfyn Evans at M-Sport Ford, takes 11th place at 5″4.

The first real step of Rally of Finland will begin tomorrow morning at 7:18 a.m., and will be followed live and in full on our website, with our live text.