Sebastien Ogier kicked off Volkswagen’s final World Rally Championship event by topping shakedown at Kennards Hire Rally Australia.
The newly crowned four-time world champion clocked a 3:01.5s best from his three runs of the 5.02km gravel shakedown test at Coffs Harbour, which uses part of Sunday’s Wedding Bells stage.
Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia topped the times by 0.1s from Volkswagen team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen, who is lying third in the championship heading into the season finale.
“It’s such an incredible cleaning effect we have seen this morning,” said Ogier.
“By our calculations it is between 0.2sec – 0.3sec per car per kilometre faster.
“It’s always difficult here but during the recce a lot of people said it was even worse than previous years. I didn’t expect so much.”
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Drivers must complete a minimum of three runs through the shakedown stage.
M-Sport’s Ott Tanak was third fastest in his Ford Fiesta WRC albeit 0.8s shy of Ogier.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon clocked identical times to claim fourth in their i20 WRC machines.
Jari-Matti Latvala put the third Volkswagen in fifth position with his 3:02.6s best time arriving from a fourth run.
M-Sport occupied sixth and seventh with drivers Eric Camilli and Mads Ostberg electing to conduct five passes through the stage. The pair were separated by just 0.2s.
The third Hyundai i20 WRC of Dani Sordo posted a time good enough for eighth although the Spaniard was well adrift of his team-mates.
Italian privateer Lorenzo Bertelli completed the top 10 in his Ford Fiesta WRC.
Nicholas Fuchs was the fastest WRC 2 runner with the Skoda Fabia driver 0.3s quicker than factory Skoda Motorsport rival Esapekka Lappi.
After this afternoon’s ceremonial start, the rally begins tomorrow with 120.61km of special stages, beginning with the 7.88km run through Utungun.
VIDEO: Hyundai Rally Australia Shakedown Wrap
VIDEO: Shakedown wrap
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