We are used to it on several rounds of the WRC, the serious things will not begin until Friday. The event nevertheless opened this Thursday evening, with a short 2.5 kilometer super special, contested in duels on the Mikołajki Arena course. On the menu, a lot of dust, a bit of spectacle, chips on the windshields and lessons that will obviously have to wait. This same special will close the first full day on Friday evening.
This seventh round of the season also started without Sébastien Ogier, who is known to have withdrawn after a road accident during reconnaissance, but with the double reigning World Champion Kalle Rovanperä in his place. The Finn has a strange challenge ahead of him as he arrived without any preparation and he has also set the tone by assuring that there was nothing for him “no way to win this rally” !
In the meantime, we must be content with the rather unrepresentative timing verdict of this SS1, during which we will remember above all that no favorite was trapped. We also witnessed the great debut of Martins Sesks in Rally1, with his Ford Puma without a hybrid system. The Latvian was beaten in his confrontation by Oliver Solberg at the wheel of his Škoda Rally2.
The scratch of this evening finally went to Ott Tänak, who was faster than Thierry Neuville by a full second. Then follow, in order, Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta, Andreas Mikkelsen and French driver Adrien Fourmaux.
