Here's the thing about championship deciders: they never start quietly. Solberg wasted absolutely no time laying down his intentions at the FIA World Rally Championship finale, setting the pace during the shakedown in Sardinia with a time of 2min 30.4sec on his second pass through the 3.27km Olmedo-Monte Baranta test. That beautiful machine of his left him 0.3sec clear of Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, with Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville slotting in another tenth further back.
Heading into a weekend where he sits 21 points behind leader Elfyn Evans, Solberg was understandably in an upbeat mood knowing a maiden world title requires a massive swing in his favour. “It is going to be very exciting,” he said. “It will be a long shot, that is for sure, but everything is possible. I took 20 points on Elfyn at the last rally and I’m only 21 points behind. There will be a lot of cleaning here, I think. We will see.”
We are here to enjoy this last race in Rally1. It is very loose and very dry and I expect a lot of hanging dust. Hopefully there will not be too many punctures.
Road cleaning and hanging dust quickly turned into the main talking points of the morning, with the dry Sardinian gravel dishing out punishing conditions. Championship leader Evans had to settle for sixth fastest, ending 2.1sec away from the benchmark, and knows opening the road on Friday will test him to the absolute limit. “The preparation has been the usual,” Evans explained. “This is a flavour of what is to come - it is so loose. It will be tough from that side, but we will have to manage it as well as we can.”
Meanwhile, second-placed Sami Pajari suffered through heavy dust on his opening run before fighting back to eighth, 4.3sec off Solberg’s pace. “Quite an interesting shakedown for an exciting rally,” said Pajari. “There was a lot of dust and I hope it won’t be this bad in the rally, otherwise I will have no chance. It is going to be a very exciting rally. We will do the best we can. We still have some chances [in the title race]. We are looking forward.”
Behind the leading trio, nine-time champion Sébastien Ogier grabbed fourth fastest, 1.8sec down, as he gears up for the final event of the Rally1 era. “The story will be about the championship this time and I’m not part of [the battle],” he said. “We are here to enjoy this last race in Rally1. It is very loose and very dry and I expect a lot of hanging dust. Hopefully there will not be too many punctures.” Adrien Fourmaux rounded out the top five just 0.1sec behind Ogier, while returning M-Sport Ford driver Mārtiņš Sesks climbed to seventh on his fourth attempt after admitting he felt “quite rusty” following an absence since Finland.
Josh McErlean and Jon Armstrong filled out the rest of the top 10, and newly crowned WRC2 champion Robert Virves set the pace among the Rally2 runners with a 2min 38.4sec effort. Unfortunately, it was a messy start for Hyundai’s Dani Sordo, whose session was cut short by a heavy impact on his first run that left the left-rear suspension of his i20 N Rally1 badly damaged. Competitive action kicks off later on Thursday with the 2.08km Ittiri Arena Show.
