Day one review: Wilks on top after night tests

Guy Wilks will start the first of Saturday’s six stages of RACMSA Rally of Scotland leading the Intercontinental Rally Challenge qualifier by 4.4s following an impressive performance in the damp and slippery conditions of Friday night’s Carron Valley tests.

Driving a Peugeot UK 207 Super 2000 alongside navigator Phil Pugh, Wilks was quickest on both passes of the 8.36-kilometre stage in Perthshire. Juho Hänninen, in a ŠKODA Motorsport Fabia S2000 holds second overall with PG Andersson a strong third in his PROTON Motorsports’ Satria Neo S2000.

“It’s a good start but there’s still a long way to go,” said Wilks, who won the inaugural Rally of Scotland in 2009. “We could have pushed a little harder but we didn’t want to take any risks and it’s paid off.”

Hänninen, the defending IRC champion and last year’s winner, said: “There was much more mud on the road, it was difficult – a challenging start to the rally.”

Irishman Craig Breen is fourth on his second outing in this year’s IRC. The M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000 pilot was second quickest on the rerun of Carron Valley.

Thierry Neuville is fifth overall in his Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg 207. The Rallye Sanremo winner reported before the start that his lack of experience driving on muddy and slippery gravel would hold him back this weekend.

Andreas Mikkelsen is sixth after a cautious run through the first Carron Valley stage. “I saw a car off the road and thought it said Hänninen on the side. It was actually the car of [Robert] Barrable but I lost a bit of concentration after that.”

Alastair Fisher is seventh in his M-Sport Fiesta with Patrik Sandell eighth for ŠKODA Sweden.

IRC title leader Jan Kopecký, who like Sandell is making his Rally of Scotland debut, can clinch the IRC drivers’ title providing he takes the maximum 37.5 points on offer for victory. However, he will have to overturn a deficit of 11.8s in order to move into top spot in his factory Fabia. The Czech driver is in ninth.

Peugeot France’s Bryan Bouffier, the winner in Monte-Carlo back in January, completes the top 10, one place ahead of local hero Alister McRae in a PROTON.

Jarkko Nikara leads the IRC Production Cup in his Ralliart Mitsubishi Lancer. Toshi Arai is second in a Subaru Impreza R4 STI. Mark Donnelly tops the IRC 2WD Cup standings from the Honda Civic Type R of Martin Kangur. The Honda challenge was depleted when Graeme Schoneville struck a deer on the road section heading to stage one, damaging his car’s radiator in the process.