Subaru's Chris Atkinson was quickest in the shakedown for the Rally Japan on Thursday, ahead of the fourteenth round in the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship.

Atkinson completed the 1.35 kilometre Obihiro test, which will be ran five times during the event as the super special stage, 0.1 seconds up on Daniel Sordo.

Sordo opted for just two passes of the test in his Citroen C4 WRC: "Marc [Marti - my-co-driver] and I above all used these passes to check our seat positions and to make sure we were comfortable in the car," explained the Spaniard to Citroen's website.

Petter Solberg meanwhile was third in his Impreza and happy with his time - although some reports, contrary to that on rallyjapan.jp, credited him with the quickest time.

“It's been feeling better and better for a long, long time. It's hard to compare the super special we used for shakedown today with the [proper] stages. But first things have to happen, no matter what stage,” he noted.

“It's given me a good feeling, but we'll see how big the improvements are tomorrow. I am looking forward to getting onto the stages now, though.”

Citroen's Sebastien Loeb and BP Ford's Marcus Gronholm, who are locked in a fierce battle for the 2007 drivers' title, completed the top five.

“The shakedown will also serve as the super-special, so it's worth making sure that the set-up of the car works well on it,” commented Loeb, who like his team-mate did just two passes.

“The photo finish we saw in New Zealand showed that every tenth of a second can count, so we prefer not to leave anything to chance.”

The Rally Japan now begins 'proper' on Friday with ten stages in wait - totalling around 106 competitive kilometres. SS1, the 9.03 kilometre-dash through Pawse Kamuy Reverse gets underway at 07.33 hours local time.