Shakedown for the 2015 LOTOS Rally Poland took place earlier today, with Volkswagen Motorsport‘s Sebastien Ogier topping the timesheets on the 3.7km gravel stage.
The running wasn’t as smooth for Kris Meeke, though, who’s participation in this weekend’s event hangs in the balance following a roll at the start of his fifth run.
“We’ll find out how the car is when we get it back, but it’s never pretty when it rolls six or seven times. The FIA will take a look, but if the roll cage is bent we’re going nowhere,” said the Citroen driver.
Ogier will start this evening’s SS1 in the best possible position, and is looking forward to the rally ahead.
“It was a really fast road, maybe only five braking points in the whole stage,” said Ogier. “It was fairly representative of the rally and good to get an accurate feeling for the speed we’ll see over the next three days.”
2nd place was tied between Volkswagen duo Jari-Matti Latvala, Andreas Mikkelsen and local star Robert Kubica, and they completed the stage half a second behind the championship leader.
Fifth place was taken by Thierry Neuville, the Hyundai driver a further 0.4 seconds behind.
