Ogier fastest, Neuville rolls in Spain warm-up

Championship leader Thierry Neuville rolled his Hyundai i20 in Thursday morning’s shakedown at RallyRACC Catalunya - Rally de España.

The Belgian crashed at a right corner 0.5km after the start of his second pass of the mixed surface 2.00km test on the edge of Salou. His car returned to the service park on the back of a truck showing panel damage to the front left, the bonnet and roof.

Mechanics immediately began work to repair the car ahead of this afternoon’s start and this evening’s opening speed test in the centre of Barcelona.

“It was a square right, I came into the corner and the ruts were already deeper than on the first pass. The car started to go onto two wheels and I tried to save the situation but we flipped over,” said Neuville.

“Obviously we were hoping for better on the shakedown. It’s a good omen as well because back in Germany a couple of years ago we rolled in shakedown and won the rally. So let’s cross fingers that it will be a similar scenario this weekend!”

Neuville’s principal title rival, Sébastien Ogier, was fastest by 0.3sec in his Ford Fiesta from Jari-Matti Latvala’s Toyota Yaris. Ogier’s team-mate, Teemu Suninen, completed the top three, a further 0.5sec back.

Craig Breen set the pace in his Citroën C3 on the first run through the test, which featured equal measures of gravel and asphalt. Ogier moved to the top of the standings after his second pass before setting his benchmark time in his third and final run.

Sébastien Loeb, Esapekka Lappi and Ott Tänak filled the top six times.

The top 10:

1. Sébastien Ogier Ford Fiesta 1min 34.9sec
2. Jari-Matti Latvala Toyota Yaris +0.3sec
3. Teemu Suninen Ford Fiesta +0.8sec
4. Sébastien Loeb Citroën C3 +1.1sec
5. Esapekka Lappi Toyota Yaris +1.2sec
6. Ott Tänak Toyota Yaris +1.3sec
7. Craig Breen Citroën C3 +1.5sec
8. Dani Sordo Hyundai i20 +1.6sec
9. Elfyn Evans Ford Fiesta +1.9sec
10. Ken Block Ford Fiesta +3.4sec