Lappi posted the quickest time in Thursday morning's 2.87 kilometer shakedown, finishing in 1 minute 45.9 seconds. His Belgian teammate Thierry Neuville was second (+0.6 seconds), followed by M-Sport's Pierre-Louis Loubet and Toyota's Sebastien Ogier, both of France, who shared third place (+1.2 seconds).

The top seven was completed by Spain's Dani Sordo (Hyundai; +1.5 seconds) and the Toyota due of Finland's Kalle Rovanperä (+1.7 seconds) and Japan's Takamoto Katsuta (+1.8 seconds).

Estonia's Ott Tänak finished eighth overall in the shakedown, 2.0 seconds behind Lappi.  

The Finn was fastest once again in Thursday evening's opening stage, posting a time of 2 minutes 24.59 seconds. Tänak trails the Finn by 0.2 seconds after stage 1, with Thierry Neuville in third (+0.5 seconds).

The Belgian was followed by the Toyota trio of Katsuta (+0.9 seconds), Rovanperä (+1.2 seconds) and Ogier (+1.3 seconds).

Stage 2 gets underway at 9.40 a.m. on Friday (Estonian time), with Tänak looking to make up ground on the race leader.

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