Kalle Rovanperä set a blistering shakedown time on Thursday morning almost four seconds quicker than Toyota teammate Sebastien Ogier on shakedown to Rally Sweden.
The already revised route also saw the first stage of the rally later in the evening turned into a second shakedown run with both suffering from a lack of snow.
Action wise, it was Toyota who look the team to beat going into the weekend. Another shock fastest time came from the returning Jari-Matti Latvala this evening, who’s 1m26.1s time was almost two seconds quicker over Ogier on Karlstad.
Both stages saw Toyota lockouts for the top three positions, with Elfyn Evans and Rovanperä taking the third fastest time on each run.
Teemu Suninen survived a high-speed spin on the opening shakedown run this morning and finished the evening test fourth fastest, 0.2 seconds behind Rovanperä, while Hyundai’s Craig Breen and Ott Tänak completed the top five this evening.
Esapekka Lappi was sixth tonight as he competed in conditions he’s probably more used to in his native Finland after matching Evans’ time while Takamoto Katsuta in another Toyota, Monte Carlo winner Thierry Neuville, fastest R5-man Johan Kristoffersson and Skoda driver Emil Lindholm completed the top 10.
2020 Rally Sweden gets underway tomorrow morning, with a reduced itinerary of four stages taking place in neighbouring Norway.
