Kris Meeke claimed his third shakedown victory of the season on a sun-kissed warm-up to the Tour de Corse Rally.
The Briton was quickest through the 5.39km Sorbo Ocagnano test by 0.9sec from Sébastien Ogier’s Citroën C3. Meeke’s Toyota Yaris team-mate and championship leader, Ott Tänak, was a further 0.5sec behind in third.
Meeke posted the three fastest times of the morning on the dry asphalt. His opening run was the benchmark, until he shaved a tenth from it in his third and final pass.
“Unfortunately there are no points for shakedown, which is a real shame as I have been fastest on three of them this year!” Meeke joked.
“It felt good this morning and I have to try to carry that confidence and translate it through to the rally, that’s the important part. We tried a different setting on the final run and it still felt very good, so we have two nice options for the rally.
“It was a different damper which offers a different type of set-up. Both seemed to work quite well, and with the different characteristics of this rally I think we can use that,” he added.
Dani Sordo was the leading Hyundai i20 driver in fourth, 2.2sec off the pace. Jari-Matti Latvala ensured a third Yaris in the top five, while Elfyn Evans completed the top six in a Ford Fiesta.
The leading times were:
POSITION
DRIVER
CAR
TIME
1.
Kris Meeke
Toyota Yaris
3min 46.7sec
2.
Sébastien Ogier
Citroën C3
+ 0.9sec
3.
Ott Tänak
Toyota Yaris
+ 1.4sec
4.
Dani Sordo
Hyundai i20
+ 2.2sec
5.
Jari-Matti Latvala
Toyota Yaris
+ 2.3sec
6.
Elfyn Evans
Ford Fiesta
+ 2.5sec
7.
Esapekka Lappi
Citroën C3
+ 2.7sec
8.
Sébastien Loeb
Hyundai i20
+ 2.8sec
9.
Thierry Neuville
Hyundai i20
+ 3.4sec
10.
Teemu Suninen
Ford Fiesta
+ 4.6sec
We have a big job checking recce videos to get our Pacenotes right for the new stages so you might as well watch a video too! Here’s our onboard from shakedown this morning, it’s going to be a busy weekend #KM5pic.twitter.com/wiWJQTZ0Ie
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