The young Finn posted a time of 3min57.7sec during his fourth and final pass over the stage, 3.5sec quicker than the similar car of Sébastien Ogier in unusually mild conditions. Elfyn Evans was just one-tenth further back, making it a Toyota 1-2-3.<\/p>\n
Ogier, a Rally Sweden expert, explained the difficulty drivers face as the levels of snow and ice covering the stages is lower than expected.<\/p>\n
“Speed is what we are always looking for but there was an important lesson to learn on shakedown about tyres because we have never used these tyres on full gravel. I tried to learn the grip levels and how much they last, so in that perspective, it was an interesting shakedown,” he explained.<\/p>\n
Craig Breen is relishing a last-minute call-up and managed fourth on shakedown in his Hyundai i20. The Irishman was 1.6sec faster than team-mate Ott Tänak, who returns to action after a dramatic crash at Rallye Monte-Carlo.<\/p>\n
Takamoto Katsuta was sixth in his Yaris, closely followed by Teemu Suninen, who very nearly fell foul to the conditions. The M-Sport Ford man suffered a high-speed spin 4.8km into the opening pass but was able to escape with only superficial damage. His team-mate Esapekka Lappi also had a similar moment.<\/p>\n
Championship leader Thierry Neuville took a steady approach to take eighth-fastest ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala in a privately-entered Yaris, whilst Lappi rounded out the top-ten.<\/p>\n
After changes to the schedule, crews will tackle a second single-pass shakedown at Karlstad’s Trotting Track tonight ahead of the first day of competitive action in the Norwegian forests on Friday.<\/p>\n