Rally Italy: Lappi heads Hyundai 1-2 in Sardinia shakedown

Hyundai driver Esapekka Lappi set the fastest time in Thursday morning’s shakedown ahead of Rally Italia Sardegna, round 6 of the 2023 WRC season.

The Finn set a best time of 1:45.9 in the 2.87 km long shakedown stage, six-tenths of a second faster than his team-mate Thierry Neuville.

Sébastien Ogier and Pierre-Louis Loubet were joint third fastest, a further 0.6s behind Neuville. Ogier is back in action this weekend as part of his part programme this season. The Frenchman dropped from first to third in the championship standings and seeks to get his fifth Sardinia win this weekend: “There are a lot of new sections this year and a challenging weekend ahead, with long stages as well. We haven’t done stages like this for a long while so it should be interesting,” the eight-time WRC champion said.

Sordo seeks third Sardinia win

Two-time Rally Italy winner Dani Sordo will be one to watch for the win this weekend as he has a good road position for tomorrow as well as experience in how to win this event. The Spaniard, who was fifth fastest in shakedown, wasn’t too happy with the set-up of his i20 N Rally1 after his first pass through shakedown: “I was not driving very well. I made some mistakes and I couldn’t develop the confidence, but it’s only shakedown. We need to try to make a good set-up with the car to make the confidence but it’s going to be a long rally,” the Hyundai driver said.

Championship leader Kalle Rovanperä was sixth fastest, ahead of Takamoto Katsuta and Ott Tänak. Elfyn Evans was the slowest of the Rally1 drivers in P9, 2.9s shy of the fastest time. The Welshman looks to gain his confidence back after his massive crash at the end of the first day of Rally Portugal, which damaged his car too much to restart later that event.

Adrien Fourmaux was the fastest Rally2 driver of the field, just 0.2s faster than Andreas Mikkelsen. Oliver Solberg was third fastest, 0.7s behind Fourmaux.

Find everything you need to know (Itinerary, Maps, Rally Guides, Entry list) about WRC Rally Italia Sardegna here.

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Rally Italia Sardegna starts this evening with a 3.2 km long Super Special in the Olbia. The first car will start the stage at 18:05 local time (CEST). Tomorrow will be the longest day of the rally in terms of competitive kilometres. There are six stages scheduled, including two passes through the mammoth 49.9 km long Monte Lerno – Sa Conchedda stage. SS2 will start at 08:40 local time.

Photo: Hyundai Motorsport