To𒊎p 15 classification at Ral🌃lyRACC Catalunya after SS7

Ott Tanak has carved out almost half a minute on his nearest World Rally Championship rivals tﷺo 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 string꧑ of consistently quick stages, despite only clಞaiming victory on SS2, to push ahead as his main rivals hit trouble.

Defending WRC champion Sebastien Ogier drifted wide on SS3 which 🍰dropped 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 opening stages 📖but a puncture on SS4 lost him around 45 seconds to the Estonian driver to tumble down the order.

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

WRC legend Sebastien Loeb returns to action for Citroen as ꧙planned and ended his opening day in Spain in fourth place 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 w🐈ith Neuville in ninth place.

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

Eric Camilli leads the WRC2 class and is 🐽12th overall in the new Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 with a&nbꦕsp;10-second gap on Skoda’s Kalle Rovanpera.