SS1: Tänak blasts to stage win and cracks joke: “His balls are more fresh”

Tänak fired the fastest time on the Harju stage with a margin of 1.3 seconds ahead of his teammate Thierry Neuville. Tänak went into humour mode in his finish-line interview. The Estonian quoted his fellow countryman Robert Virves, who had earlier set the fastest time in the WRC2 category.

“Quite easy. Just big balls and full send,” Virves joked in his own interview.

“Robert did the stage before, he gave me some good tips. I replicated him and it was all good. It was a clean stage actually and, let’s see. Obviously a big rally tomorrow, but always good to have a good start. (Robert’s advice tomorrow?)He said something about having big balls and going flat out. He’s a bit younger, so probably his balls are more fresh, but i’ll try my best,” Tänak quipped in turn.

Neuville started the rally with the second-fastest time. Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier was only 0.3 seconds behind the Belgian.

“It’s just magical driving those roads, specially when driving for the best team in the world! This Rally1 is amazing to drive here, it’s a pleasure to be at the start of this rally,” Ogier enjoyed.

“We’re gonna find out. Gonna follow the feeling. It’s a hard event for us every year. We finished 2nd last year and we had quite good speed in difficult conditions. Seems it’s not gonna be any easier this year. Focus on ourselves and focus on the championship battle to take good points. Main opponents are Ott and Elfyn who are sharing the lead,” Neuville said.

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä, chasing his first home rally win, was fourth fastest on Harju. The gap to Tänak’s benchmark was 1.7 seconds.

“It’s always exciting. Best part of the rally is when it’s starting. Expectations are a bit unknown at the moment, but we’ll go for it,” Rovanperä summed up.

Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux was fifth fastest, ahead of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta and Elfyn Evans. M-Sport Ford’s Grégoire Munster reached the eighth-fastest time ahead of Toyota’s Sami Pajari.

Behind Virves, the second-fastest in the WRC2 category was Frenchman Yohan Rossel, 0.7 seconds slower than the Estonian. Jari-Matti Latvala was third in the class, 1.2 seconds behind Virves.

“I was here for the first time in 2003, when I was 18 years old. Now I have to focus on this start. I had a good feeling, but it’s always a bit nervous when starting from Harju. There were a lot of spectators. You just always want to drive more. You can’t stop doing this, it’s such a great thing,” Latvala praised.

Rally Finland heads to the real forest stages on Friday, with Laukaa, Saarikas, Myhinpää and Ruuhimäki all run twice. The day ends once again with the Harju spectator stage.

Rally Finland ends on Sunday.

Rally Finland standings after SS1/20:

Rally Finland itinerary (CET):

Thursday, 31 July

08.01 Shakedown: Ruuhimäki (4.12 km)
18.05 SS1: Harju 1 (2.58 km)

Friday, 1 August

07.03 SS2: Laukaa 1 (17.96 km)
08.03 SS3: Saarikas 1 (15.78 km)
09.23 SS4: Myhinpää 1 (14.47 km)
10.51 SS5: Ruuhimäki 1 (7.76 km)
12.01 Service (40 min)
13.44 SS6: Laukaa 2 (17.96 km)
14.44 SS7: Saarikas 2 (15.78 km)
16.04 SS8: Myhinpää 2 (14.47 km)
17.35 SS9: Ruuhimäki 2 (7.76 km)
18.30 SS10: Harju 2 (2.58 km)

Saturday, 2 August

07.01 SS11: Parkkola 1 (15.51 km)
08.42 SS12: Västilä 1 (18.94 km)
09.36 SS13: Päijälä 1 (20.19 km)
11.05 SS14: Leustu 1 (16.44 km)
12.35 Service (40 min)
14.01 SS15: Parkkola 2 (15.51 km)
15.42 SS16: Västilä 2 (18.94 km)
16.36 SS17: Päijälä 2 (20.19 km)
18.05 SS18: Leustu 2 (16.44 km)

Sunday, 3 August

09.35 SS19: Ouninpohja 1 (23.98 km)
12.15 SS20: Ouninpohja 2 (23.98 km)