Lappi leads Wales Rally GB opener

Full WRC top 15 classification after SS1 at Wales Rally GB

Esapekka Lappi heads up the opening stage of the 2018 Wales Rally GB for Toyota Gazoo Racing from teammate Jari-Matti Latvala.

On the ceremonial 1.7km SS1 stage, Tir Prince, Lappi set the time to beat with a 1m 21.6s getting on to the road early before the majority of his premier class WRC rivals. Championship leader Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) set an identical time to Latvala to share second place on the timesheet with defending WRC champion Sebastien Ogier (M-Sport Ford) in fourth place four-tenths of a second off Neuville and Latvala.

In-form Ott Tanak bounced back from a shakedown crash to grab fifth place for Toyota, inside one second of Lappi, having secured three consecutive race wins coming into Wales Rally GB.

Andreas Mikkelsen slotted into sixth place for Hyundai in front of teammate Hayden Paddon with Teemu Suninen, who topped the shakedown, in joint eighth place for M-Sport Ford with lead WRC2 driver Kalle Rovanpera (Skoda).

Lead Citroen driver Craig Breen rounds out the top ten 2.5s off outright leader Lappi.