Tanak tops shakedown in Germany

Full Rally Germany shakedown results

Ott Tanak has maintained his momentum from victory at Rally Finland to lead the shakedown times ahead of this year’s ADAC Rallye Deutschland ahead of fellow Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala.

Tanak is targeting a late charge in the World Rally Championship title fight having made huge gains with victory in Finland coupled with Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier’s respective struggles at the event.

The Estonian driver set the fastest time in the shakedown of 2m 52.9s, two-tenths quicker than Latvala, with nine-time Germany winner Ogier in third for M-Sport Ford.

WRC championship leader Neuville kept in close contention in fourth place to end the shakedown just ahead of team-mate Dani Sordo who moves back into the third Hyundai, taking over from Hayden Paddon, as planned earlier in the season.

Elfyn Evans had an encouraging shakedown in sixth for M-Sport Ford ahead of lead Citroen driver Craig Breen with Esapekka Lappi splitting the Citroen drivers with Mads Ostberg in ninth.

M-Sport Ford’s Teemu Suninen rounded out the top ten ahead of final top class WRC challenger Andreas Mikkelsen in the Hyundai with M-Sport’s Eric Camilli heads up the WRC2 category.