Last year´s Ypres Rally winner and the local fans’ home hero Thierry Neuville went fastest through the Nieuwkerke Shakedown stage held as the rally warm-up on Thursday afternoon, he edged the current championship points leader Kalle Rovanperä by just 0.6 of a second.
The Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team seems to be strong ahead of the rally, the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 has been proven to be a great car on tarmac stages and it showed well during the shakedown as Oliver Solberg, who hopes to get his luck turned around in Ypres, went third fastest 0.7 seconds behind Rovanperä. However, Toyota Gazoo Racing´s Elfyn Evans also posted a similar time on his last pass and that means both Solberg and Evans are sharing third place.
Craig Breen was the fastest out of the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team drivers, with 0.3 seconds behind Solberg and Evans, and Toyota´s Esapekka Lappi 0.1 second behind in sixth. Adrien Fourmaux also in an M-Sport built Ford Puma Rally1 went seventh fastest with 0.5 seconds behind. Rally Finland winner Ott Tänak had to settle for the eight fastest time just 0.2 seconds slower than Fourmaux and rounding-up of the Rally1 drivers in the top 10 were Toyota´s NG driver Takamoto Katsuta in ninth and M-Sport´s Gus Greensmith in tenth.
In the WRC2 support category, it is also another home hero who tops as the local wildcard Sébastien Bedoret edged the returning Stéphane Lefebvre.
Ypres Rally Shakedown top 15:
| Pos. | Number. | Driver / Co-driver | Country | Team | Model | Class | Time |
| 1. | #11 | Thierry Neuville / Martijn Wydaeghe | Belgium | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | Rally1 | 3:44.4 |
| 2. | #69 | Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne Halttunen | Finland | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | Rally1 | 3:45.0 |
| 3. | #2 | Oliver Solberg / Elliott Edmondson | Sweden / UK | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | Rally1 | 3:45.7 |
| = | #33 | Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin | UK | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | Rally1 | 3:45.7 |
| 5. | #42 | Craig Breen / Paul Nagle | Ireland | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | Rally1 | 3:46.0 |
| 6. | #4 | Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferm | Finland | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | Rally1 | 3:46.1 |
| 7. | #16 | Adrien Fourmaux / Alexandre Coria | France | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | Rally1 | 3:46.6 |
| 8. | #8 | Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja | Estonia | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | Rally1 | 3:46.8 |
| 9. | #18 | Takamoto Katsuta / Aaron Johnston | Japan / UK | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT NG | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | Rally1 | 3:48.4 |
| 10. | #44 | Gus Greensmith / Jonas Andersson | UK / Sweden | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | Rally1 | 3:50.0 |
| 11. | #50 | Sébastien Bedoret / Francois Gilbert | Belgium / France | Hainaut Motor Club | Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo | WRC2 | 4:02.9 |
| 12. | #24 | Stéphane Lefebvre / Andy Malfoy | France | DG Sport | Citroen C3 Rally2 | WRC2 | 4:03.7 |
| 13. | #35 | Georg Linnamäe / James Morgan | Estonia / UK | ALM Motorsport | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | WRC2 | 4:03.9 |
| 14. | #20 | Andreas Mikkelsen / Torstein Eriksen | Norway | Toksport WRT | Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo | WRC2 | 4:04.2 |
| 15. | #31 | Chris Ingram / Craig Drew | UK | Toksport WRT | Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo | WRC2 | 4:04.7 |
