Sébastien Ogier has sent a warning to sailors in the training section of the Rally RACC de Catalunya after setting the best time at the controls of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. Takamoto Katsuta finished nine tenths behind his teammate.
Sébastien Ogier has set the tone in the shakedown of the Rally RACC de Catalunya, giving a sample of the pace you may have during the test. Although it is true that the rain-soaked tarmac present throughout the training section could affect the pace of some riders, for the moment Ogier is off to a good start and Toyota scares its rivals.
And it is that, if one looks at the shakedown time table, all four Toyota GR Yaris Rally are among the top five. Only Pierre-Louis Loubet has dared to sneak in among the Japanese firm’s riders, at the cost of completing five passes of the stage when most have stayed in two or three attempts. Own Sébastien Ogier has made three passes of the stage to sign the benchmark 2:40.1.
Pepe López has finished with the eighth absolute best shakedown time with the first of the ‘Rally2’ vehicles
Takamoto Katsuta has not stayed away from his partner, showing that on asphalt it can be a full-fledged ‘outsider’. For now, the Japanese driver has stayed nine tenths behind Ogier in the shakedown, in addition to beating Pierre-Louis Loubet’s Ford Puma Rally1 by three tenths. Already in fourth and fifth position are the two remaining Toyota drivers, with Elfyn Evans ahead of champion Kalle Rovanperä.
While the Toyota drivers have finished the shakedown in the lead and the M-Sport drivers have not finished very far, to show Gus Greensmith’s sixth place -with four attempts- and Adrien Fourmaux’s seventh, under these conditions the Hyundai drivers could be said to have completely disappeared. In fact, several ‘Rally2’ have slipped ahead of the men of the South Korean firm.
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The Hyundai out of the ‘top 10’
The dance to the sound of the windshield wipers has not sat very well with the Hyundai drivers and you have to go back to the twelfth to find the first of the brand’s hybrid ‘Rally1’. Ott Tänak has been in charge of occupying that twelfth position, just ahead of Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville. Even Jari Huttunen, a former driver of the brand, has slipped ahead with his ‘Rally2’.
A discreet boot in the rain to considersince the forecasts indicate that there may still be precipitation throughout Friday’s stage, especially in the morning loop. The choice of tires seems key and it can make the first differences depending on how the dirt on the track and the grip of the asphalt are managed.
Spanish double in WRC2
Given the discreet performance of Dani Sordo and the entire Hyundai team, the ‘puppies’ from the Spanish academy have taken over from the Cantabrian. In fact, Pepe López has finished in eighth place overall with the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 with a time of 2:48.8 which has enabled him to dominate the WRC2 category. A kind of silver in which Alejandro Cachón finished second after being tenth at the end of the shakedown.
Jan Solans has had a more discreet performance within the WRC2 category after signing a best time of over 3:02 on his second pass. The driver finished twelfth in the second class with his Citroën C3 Rally2.
Classification of the shakedown of the 57th Rally RACC de Catalunya
The RACC Rally officially starts this Friday (08:33 a.m.) with the dispute of the first stage of the test. Pilots and co-pilots will dispute 118.92 kilometers against the clock.
Photos: Toyota Gazoo Racing