Esapekka Lappi and Sebastien Ogier share the lead for Rally Estonia after the Tartu Vald stage on Friday evening ahead of Ott Tänak.
The FIA World Rally Championship made its return to action with the opening super-special as M-Sport Ford’s Lappi set an identical time as six-time Ogier with home hero Tänak just a further 0.1 seconds behind.
Estonian Tänak was the fastest in the morning’s shakedown and is just 0.3 seconds ahead of Hyundai teammate Craig Breen, with Elfyn Evans fifth fastest going into Saturday.
Sixth overall at the end of Friday is the quickest WRC2 entrant Mads Østberg. The Norwegian set a time quicker than several of the WRC field including Toyota development driver Takamoto Katsuta, and Kalle Rovanperä. Thierry Neuville and Teemu Suninen share tenth overall at the end of day one.
The WRC runners are completed by Gus Greensmith and Pierre Louis-Loubet, while behind Østberg in WRC2 is Pontus Tidemand and Nioklay Gryazin.
WRC3 sees Jari Huttunen ahead of Oliver Solberg and Eerik Pietarinen while Sami Pajari was the fastest Junior WRC driver on the opening stage.
Tomorrow sees a busy day for the event, with 10 stages taking place totaling 148km taking place as the championship’s return continues.
