Solberg quickest through Shakedown

Oliver Solberg was the quickest driver on Shakedown when Croatia returned to WRC after a missing year. Photo: Christian Flodin / FotoINorr

With Croatia absent from the WRC calendar last year, this years return has a new town as base for the rally, meaning a lot of new stages, both for drivers and for fans. The shakedown got interrupted several times because of spectators on unsafe positions close to the roads. This got several Rally1 drivers queing close to the starting line.
Fastest driver of the shakedown was current championship runner-up, Oliver Solberg, who was 0,3 seconds faster than Kenya winner Takamoto Katsuta. To stop a Toyota 1-2-3, Thierry Neuville had the third fastest time, 0,8 seconds after Solberg, before the third Toyota driver, championship leader Elfvyn Evans. Jon Armstrong had the faster Ford Puma, 0,4 seconds faster than teammate Joshua McErlean, but both cars were slowest of the WRC1 cars.
The starting field of WRC2 is a really strong one in Croatia, and french Skoda-driver Emil Camilli had the fastest time on the shakedown, half a second faster than Nikolay Gryazin, driving the season-new Lancia Ypsilon. Roberto Dapra was the third fastest driver, but had the same time as Gryazin in his fastest attempt.

Written by: Christian Flodin