The Thursday prologue was cancelled due to persistent and strong rain, and so the competitors only went to the start on Friday morning. Seven speed tests with total length of 97.5 km were scheduled, and although there were concerns about the condition of the road it has almost dried, and the drivers were up to an extraordinarily fast competition where, in their own words, they “only” use the fifth and sixth gear.

The opening speed test meant a bad-luck start for Juho Hänninen of the Škoda Motorsport factory team. In the second kilometre he had a flat left rear tire and lost about 90 seconds. Although his times afterward were among the best three, after the first day he will have to be satisfied with “only” the fourth place with a loss of 1:40 min behind the leading Kris Meek. His teammate Jan Kopecký makes from the beginning times at the third to fourth place, and after the first day he is third with the loss of exactly one minute. The UK driver Guy Wilks driving Škoda Fabia Super 2000 and representing Škoda UK Motorsport team ranks in the beautiful second place after the first day, half a minute behind the leading driver.

Saturday’s final leg features eight stages and 119 rough kilometres.

Jan Kopecký: “The local circuit is very fast, similar to Finland, it is necessary to get used to this speed a little. Tomorrow we still have a long day in front of us with more turning profile of the circuit.”

Juho Hänninen: “The race did not start ideally for us, the flat tire right at the start of the first stage did not help us relax and it did not help us with the ranks at all. I was driving little more carefully then, we had no spare wheel. Kris drives fantastically, he’s won my respect.”