Tänak tops shakedown as Tet Rally Latvia gets underway

The Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid pilot produced the benchmark time of 1min 33.6sec on his second run of the 3.58km Cimdenieki shakedown stage, seeing off his team-mate and championship leader Thierry Neuville by three-tenths of a second.

Neuville survived an early moment, pushing the limits of his Hyundai as he swept the roads clean for his competitors. “We immediately found the limit so now we know,” opined the Belgian with a wry smile. “It’s going to be tough for us, that’s for sure. In these conditions, it won’t be easy.”

At stage-end Tänak noted the rally, which is making its FIA World Rally Championship debut, has similar characteristics to Poland and his home rally of Estonia, which makes up part of the FIA European Rally Championship this season. However, the 36-year-old will be hoping for better fortunes this weekend than he had on those rallies, crashing out on both in recent weeks.

Rounding out the shakedown top three was Takamoto Katsuta, the quickest of four Toyota GR Yaris cars across the line.

No stranger to these stages but making his debut in a hybrid-powered vehicle, Mārtiņš Sesks showed a wealth of local knowledge to bring his Ford Puma Rally1 across the line fourth-quickest, a further three-tenths of a second back on Katsuta.

Elfyn Evans, who like Neuville will have the inenviable job of helping to sweep the road on Friday, completed the top five in his Toyota.

The rally convoy moves north from its south-west coastal base of Liepāja to Latvia’s capital city Rīga this afternoon (Thursday) for a super special stage on Biķernieki Track, starting at 20:05 local time.

Remaining in Rīga overnight, action restarts at 10:00 local time on Friday as the rally weaves its way back to Liepāja across six stages.