Hi, friends!
Two-time WRC Rally Chile winner Ott Tanak (Hyundai) posted fastest time on shakedown ahead of this rally and he certainly didn't give up on a title fight despite a fact that he is 18 points behind of Championship leader Elfyn Evans (Toyota).
Cleaning won't be that much of a problem because there was some rain at stages in last few days plus potential rain on Friday so cleaning won't be the biggest problem for Evans (and Rovanpera (Toyota)) as first starters on Friday. Seb Ogier (Toyota) will have 3rd starting position which is not bad, maybe the best if it will light rain. Ogier posted 4th fastest time in shakedown (first run was probably on hard compound of tires because he was 10s behind) and it was from the 2nd run on shakedown. Just to tell you that drivers can use tires from shakedown for the stages and that's why some of them opted to keep them as less as possible destroyed.
Kalle Rovanpera was 2nd fastest, only 0.1s of Tanak's time and Evans 0.2s further of Rovanpera. Hyundai's 3rd driver Adrien Fourmaux was 5th quickest, 1.5s of the fastest time. That's how competitive is this field these days.
Real action starts on competitive special stages on Friday 1:15pm, CET. Let the best win - as always...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdCXP4-ZcjQ&pp=ygUDd3Jj
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SouK2aCTTGk&pp=0gcJCckJAYcqIYzv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya5lO5uv6Yk
Credit for photos and videos to WRC and Youtube.
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