Kalle Rovanperä started with a solid performance on the shakedown stage – “I’m ready for the fight!”

On the opening run, the fastest driver was Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier, who currently leads the World Rally Championship. The French ace beat Hyundai’s Ott Tänak by three-tenths of a second and his teammate Kalle Rovanperä by a narrow margin of 0.4 seconds.

The shakedown stage measured 4.57 kilometres. Although the results don’t affect the actual rally, the times from the first run especially give an indication of the balance of power.

“I’m excited. It’s been a great season, but now the hardest work is ahead. We need to forget what has happened and focus on this rally. We did a test rally, so at least we’re well prepared,” Ogier said.

“I feel ready for the fight. It’s nice to be back on asphalt. Of course, this is a special rally with three different types of roads in three different countries over one weekend. Hopefully the weather stays dry – then it’ll be a fun rally,” Rovanperä remarked.

Ogier leads the championship by two points ahead of teammate Elfyn Evans. Rovanperä is 21 points behind the leader. Hyundai’s Ott Tänak also remains in contention, but his gap to the top is already 43 points.

Evans was fifth on the opening run of the shakedown, just behind Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux. He was 1.6 seconds off Ogier’s benchmark time.

“I’m looking forward to the weekend. We haven’t been on asphalt for a long time, so it was a bit of a shock. The weather conditions will certainly be unstable, and so will the grip throughout the weekend, so it’s going to be interesting,” Evans commented.

“We’ll see what happens. I haven’t driven this car for quite a while, but it was the only option now. At least it’s moving forward,” Tänak told.

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville ran into trouble straight away in the opening corner. His car went off the road and sustained some damage, losing more than 13 seconds to the leader as a result.

“I braked too late at the first junction. The tyres locked up and I was carrying too much speed,” Neuville summarised.

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta was sixth on the opening run of the shakedown, ahead of Sami Pajari and Josh McErlean. M-Sport Ford’s Grégoire Munster suffered a technical issue, which cost him over a minute compared to the top time.

The shakedown stage is still in progress. The actual rally will get underway on Thursday afternoon with the Golf und Therme stage, which will be run twice.

Central European Rally – Shakedown Stage, Opening Run Results: