Rally Croatia kicks off tomorrow with the first day of racing, but today the Shakedown of the fourth WRC event was held in one stage, the 3.65km Okic, which was important for the teams, allowing them to make final adjustments in view of the 20 internships scheduled for this weekend.
The test took place in a surreal atmosphere, still shocked by the death of Craig Breen, which occurred just last week while the Hyundai Motorsport driver was intent on carrying out a pre-event test dedicated precisely to the Rally of Croatia.
Kalle Rovanpera set the best time in 1’52″8 signed in the third of three laps. The reigning world champion, at the wheel of one of the 4 official GR Yaris Rally1s, preceded Ott Tanak by 8 tenths with the Ford Puma Rally and teammate Sébastien Ogier, author of the same time (in tenth, but not one hundredth) of the Estonian.
However, Tanak is second in the standings, due to a lower overall time than the 8-time world champion and leader of the World Championship, although we are talking about hundredths of a second.
The first Hyundai i20 N Rally1 in the standings is that of Esapekka Lappi, 6 tenths slower than the tandem of authors of the same time. For Hyundai, this will be a very difficult weekend, considering the tremendous loss of Craig Breen who was due to race this weekend with the third i20 N Rally1.
The Top 5 is completed by Takamoto Katsuta, half a second slower than Lappi but quicker than the second Hyundai i20 N, that of Thierry Neuville. The Belgian will be called upon not only to obtain a great result to better remember his former teammate Breen, but also to bring home important points in view of the World Championship.
Pierre-Louis Loubet stopped in seventh place, last of the P1 priority drivers and at the wheel of a Rally1 car. The Frenchman was the only one in the top 7 who clocked his best time in the second of the three passes he made.
Big trouble instead for Elfyn Evans. The Welshman has yet to take part in the Shakedown following a turbo failure on his GR Yaris Rally1. His car’s dashboard started signaling a problem before it entered testing, so he went back to the Service Park to try to fix it.
Having failed to complete the minimum 3 laps in the Shakedown, Evans was summoned by the race stewards together with a representative of the Toyota Racing team, Kaj Lindstrom, to explain the reasons that led him not to take part in the test stage. After hearing the team’s reasons – namely that the turbo failure forced the mechanics to carry out a thorough check of the engine to avoid further damage – the marshals decided not to take any action against the Welshman. Tomorrow Evans will be able to regularly take part in the race.
