Kalle Rovanperä made the perfect start to what could potentially be a life-changing week by winning Thursday morning’s shakedown at Repco Rally New Zealand.
The Toyota GR Yaris star is in a position to seal the FIA World Rally Championship title at this 11th round and wasted no time in making his intentions known.
“It was all good,” he smiled. “The feeling is quite nice, but it will be tricky opening the road.”
Toyota returnee Sébastien Ogier ended 0.3sec back from Tänak ahead of team-mate Elfyn Evans, who rounded out the top-six, with M-Sport Ford Puma pairing Gus Greensmith and Craig Breen placing seventh and eighth respectively.
Breen set the pace on the opening pass but slipped down the order, eventually stopping the clock with the same time as Takamoto Katsuta. Home hero Hayden Paddon – driving a WRC2-specification Hyundai – completed the leaderboard.
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