Thursday morning in the Scandinavian home of rally at Rally Finland and fastest out of the gates was Flying Finn Sami Pajari. Since his Rally1 debut at last years event, Pajari has been impressive with some stand out performances coming at this year’s Rally Kenya and Rally Islas Canaries before an eventual retirement. Second in another Yaris Rally1 was Takamoto Katsuta, the Japanese driver who spent nearly 10 years of his life living in Jyväskylä said he was feeling confident and was “ready” for this weekend. Third was Adrien Fourmaux who will be trying for a first win since joining Hyundai, the Frenchman finished third last year so will be one to keep an eye out on throughout the weekend.

Fourth was Ott Tanäk who was rebuilding confidence on Finnish roads after not making it past day 1 on his last 2 efforts at the event and Irishman Josh McErlean was fifth. Josh was on course for a career best Wrc-2 finish here last year before a crash on the final day put his hopes to bed. Sixth was Rövanpera, seventh was Evans, Eight was Neuville, Ninth was Ogier, tenth was Munster and 11th was Sesks. Shakedown was not without trouble however as there was a stoppage of around 10 minutes before Katsuta got underway. The first stage tonight takes place around the streets of Harju at