Top 15 classification at Rall𓄧yRACC Catalunya after🐷 SS7

Ott T𝓀anak has carved out almost hal൩f a minute on his nearest World Rally Championship rivals to comfortably lead the opening day at RallyRACC Catalunya as his WRC title rivals faltered.

The Toyota🔴 Gazoo Racing driver continued his strong second half of the season with a string of consistently quick stages, despite only claiming victory on SS2, to push ahead as his main rivals hit trouble.

Defending WRC champion🦂 Sebastien Ogier drifted wide on SS3 which dropp🌠ed him down the order to seventh place for M-Sport Ford, while championship leader Thierry Neuville struggled for front-running pace which sees him relegated to ninth place for Hyundai.

Tanak’s Toyota teammate Jari-Matti Latvala looked a strong contender for victory in the ope♋ning stages but a puncture on SS4 lost him around 45 seconds to the Estonian driver to tumble down the or꧃der.

As a result, local star Dani Sordo aꦰcts as Tanak’s closest rival 26.8s back in second place for Hyundai with a slender 2.9s-advantage on M-Sport Ford’s Elfyn Evans.

WRC legend Sebastien Loeb returns to action for Citroen as planned and ended his opening day in Spain in fourth placꦚe as lead Citroen driver, half a second behind Evans, while Latvala recovered ♋to fifth place.

Andreas Mikkelsen holds sixth for Hyundai by just 0.3s 🔴from Ogier, with Citroen’s Craig Breen splitting the WRC title rivals with Neuville in ninth place.

Esapekka Lappi rounds out the top ten for Toyota following a tricky start 🥂to his Spanish event but comfortably ahead of Teemu Suninen for M-Sport Ford in 11th.

Er💮ic Camilli leads the WRC2 class and is 12th overaꦦll in the new Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 with a 10-second gap on Skoda’s Kalle Rovanpera.