TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team’s Sébastien Ogier is the early leader of the Central European Rally, which began from the Czech capital city of Prague on Thursday.
This is the second edition of this cross-border event as a round of the FIA World Rally Championship. While the rally base is situated in the German region of Bavaria, it was some 270 kilometres to the north where the action began on Thursday morning with the pre-event shakedown on the outskirts of Prague. In the afternoon the cars crossed over the ceremonial start ramp in the city’s historic castle district, then took to the first competitive stage, a short super special at the nearby Velká Chuchle racecourse.
Here, Sébastien Ogier set the quickest time to take the early rally lead, 0.6 seconds in front of his team-mate Takamoto Katsuta.
From there, the route took the crews south to Klatovy for the longer second stage of 11.78 kilometres, which they drove shortly after sunset. Ogier was third-fastest here, just 1.1s from the best time, to lead by 0.9s tonight.
Katsuta, returning to action after sitting out the previous round in Chile, completed a strong start with the sixth-best time in SS2, putting him fourth overall and just 2s from the lead. Elfyn Evans is seventh, within 3.1s of the lead, with Sami Pajari a further 3s back in eighth as he begins his first asphalt rally aboard the GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It was good to get the Central European Rally started again in the Czech Republic today. It’s been a long day for our crews without so many kilometres to be driven at speed, but it’s good to see that all of them got through these tricky first two stages without any issues, and now we can look forward to some more intense action on Czech roads tomorrow. It was a solid start from everyone and it’s particularly positive to have Taka coming back strongly after a bit of a break, driving with good speed and confidence. The weather has been dry so far and it looks like it will remain quite stable, which will be nice so that everyone can have a clean rally and a clean fight, especially those starting further back on the road tomorrow like some of our drivers are.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s always nice to drive in the dark when we get the chance, which is not so often these days, but this second stage this evening was quite unpredictable – in some places there was not so much grip, and in others there was quite a lot. We could have had a better run there but I guess everyone can say that. The stages ahead of us look good; there’s a lot of anti-cut poles placed on the inside of corners which should reduce the amount of dirt being dragged onto the road. Still, it won’t be straightforward with plenty of challenging elements we need to get right, and tomorrow is a bit more technical and possibly a bit dirtier than what will follow for the rest of the weekend.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s nice to be starting this rally, especially with the weather which looks more enjoyable than last year and I hope we can have fun this weekend. It was obviously a good start for us in the first stage. The second one was pretty dusty and slippery. It all went OK, but nothing special. Still, we have not driven so many kilometres yet and tomorrow there will be more action. Like we saw in SS2, some sections in the forest are probably going to remain slippery, but otherwise there’s a lot of anti-cut devices which should keep the road cleaner and give us more grip to work with.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It’s nice for me to be back and I enjoyed both of these first two stages. I didn’t push so much but I’m enjoying this car a lot: it’s fantastic and it feels good. Everything’s also going well with our pacenotes and the information within them. I’m happy so far. I will still need to be a bit steady tomorrow as it’s maybe the toughest day of the rally. I will take it step by step, trying to build the confidence, the rhythm and the feeling. The main target is to get through all the stages with a good feeling and do my best.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“Already in shakedown this morning my feeling was really nice, although it was not exactly the same type of stage we will face during the rally, especially tomorrow or even this evening. At least it looks like the weather should be much drier and more consistent than last year, so I think that’s helping us a lot and if it stays like this it could be quite enjoyable. In SS2 it felt really nice and also quite demanding at the same time. There’s many places where I’m quite far from perfect, braking points and corners where I’m too careful. But I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
End of day one (Thursday):
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 7m50.6s
2 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +0.9s
3 Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1.7s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2.0s
5 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +2.1s
6 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +2.4s
7 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +3.1s
8 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +6.1s
9 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +9.5s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +24.9s
(Results as of 19:20 on Thursday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
The rally continues on Czech roads on Friday, beginning with another pass over the Klatovy stage, which is then followed by two more tests to the south-east. This loop of three stages – over bumpy, narrow and fast roads – will be repeated in the afternoon, with a remote service to be held at the start of the day and again after the third and final run through Klatovy.
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