Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“It’s interesting to be here in Saudi Arabia for the first time. It’s a new event for all of the drivers and from what our boys have told me after the recce, the stages are certainly going to be demanding. Usually they are used to driving pretty much flat-out, but this might need a different approach, a bit like in Kenya or Greece. Elfyn, Seb and Kalle are all very experienced drivers and they know what they are doing, and as a team we’ve tried to do what we can to give them a strong car. Hopefully it’s going to be an exciting battle for everyone to follow.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s good to get the rally started tonight after what’s been a busy week already, getting all the pacenotes written and trying to get them right. The stages are definitely challenging with quite a lot of rocks about and very little margin for error, and it looks from the first pass of shakedown like the grip level is going to be pretty low. I’m sure the road will evolve as more cars pass, so it won’t be easy for us from first on the road tomorrow. But it’s all very open, anything can happen, and we will just focus on our job like on any other rally and see what happens.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It’s always exciting to be starting a new rally and we will try to put on a good show for the fans. It will be emotional for me and Jonne but we will try to enjoy this last rally as best as we can. It is not going to be an easy one by any means, with the roughness of the stages and a lot of loose stones around, but we will try to finish in the best way possible. This first stage was not so good for me in terms of the driving but hopefully tomorrow on the gravel it’s better!”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s good to get this last rally of the year started but the real challenge will start tomorrow. The preparation has not been easy arriving to a completely new rally, and it’s certainly going to be a tough challenge for everyone. The stages are rough with a lot of rocks around, so it needs a different approach; the main thing is to try to be clever and stay out of trouble. We have tried to prepare as best as we can and we will just focus on the best driving that we can produce.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It’s good to be here in Saudi Arabia and starting this rally for the first time. So far there’s been a good atmosphere with a lot of people interested in the rally. During the recce we have seen many different kinds of stages: some of them remind me a bit of Greece with many rocks, and some are like Kenya with really soft sand. It’s not easy to find the right setup and feeling, and the shakedown was quite slippery, so it will be demanding but we will try our best to bring a good result.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It was nice to win our head-to-head with Adrien [Fourmaux] in this first stage; we joked together beforehand that this weekend we are deciding our start positions for the first rally next year! We’ve had some busy days already on the recce trying to discover what this rally is going to be like. Some sections look nice and fast and flowing, and there are also some really tricky, twisty and rocky sections. There will be an element of survival, but you don’t want to be too slow either.”

End of day one (Wednesday):
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 3m53.3s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1.2s
3 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +1.6s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2.0s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2.1s
6 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2.5s
7 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2.6s
8 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2.9s
9 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +3.6s
10 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +4.8s
(Results as of 21:30 on Wednesday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?
Two loops of three stages to the north of Jeddah will be run twice either side of mid-day service. The middle stage, named Moon Stage, is the longest and potentially most demanding, lined by large rocks. Another run of this evening’s super special in Jeddah completes the day, which totals 106.84 competitive kilometres.