World Rally Championship leader Kalle Rovanpera kicked off his Repco Rally New Zealand quest in the best possible fashion by topping Thursday’s shakedown.
The Toyota driver completed three passes of the 3.54km short gravel shakedown stage, clocking a best time of 1:27.7s.
“The feeling is quite nice,” said Rovanpera. “It will be tricky opening the road – even now in the shakedown it was hard with the loose gravel. That will be a challenge, like always.”
Rovanpera’s best effort was 0.1s faster than the Hyundai’s of Acropolis Rally Greece winner Thierry Neuville and Oliver Solberg, who set identical times. The latter did however pick up some minor bodywork damage following his first run.
Rovanpera’s chief title rival Ott Tanak was just a tenth of a second slower than his Hyundai team-mates.
Eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier was fifth fastest on his return to New Zealand for the first time since 2010, where he threw away a likely maiden WRC win. Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans ended shakedown in sixth, 0.3s adrift of Ogier.
Gus Greensmith emerged as the leading M-Sport-Ford in seventh, ahead of team-mate Craig Breen and the fourth Toyota driven by Takamoto Katsuta.
Local hero Hayden Paddon produced impressive speed in his Rally2 Hyundai i20 to top the class and secure 10th overall.
Australian Rally Championship star Harry Bates was second in the WRC2 class just a tenth of a second quicker than reigning Supercars champions Shane van Gisbergen.
Van Gisbergen is making his WRC debut this weekend piloting a Rally2 specification Skoda Fabia, and the Kiwi thoroughly enjoyed his first taste of Repco Rally New Zealand.
“That is fun as hell,” he said. “The road is pretty fast I took it bit easy but it was fun.”
Repco Rally New Zealand begins later this evening with the Pukekawa Auckland Domain 1.78km super special stage held in the centre of host city Auckland.