Rovanpera blitzed the competition after electing to tackle the 2.87-miles of ‘Rannankylä♛’ for a fourth time. At one minute 56.3 seconds, it was eight tenths of a second faster than Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate and former event winner Elfyn Evans - and a possible sign of what lies in store over the cou♊rse of the weekend ahead.

“Not maybe pressure but of🅺 course there is more will to try and win it,” said 22-year-old Rovanpera. “Definitely it is not going to be easy froꦓm first on the road, but that's our target - to try to push for the win of course but still have a good rally to score some good points for the season.”

Slotting in at three in his i20 N Ra𒉰lly1 car was fellow Finn Esapekka Lappi – another winner of the ‘Gravel Grand Prix’. The Hyundai Motorsport driver was 1.1 seconds off Rovanpera’s benchmark.

Ott Tanak – who goes in search of back-to-back wins in an attempt to keep his alre💜ady slim World Rally Championship title hopes alive – managed to complete the exercise fourth overall despite reporting electrical gremlins with his Puma Rally1 after the opening run.

Tanak’s time was two tenths faster than the third points-scoring Toyota of Takamoto Katsuta, w🧸ho returns to the factory team in the absence of eight-time World Champion, Sebastien Ogier😼.

The second works Hyundai driven by Thierry Neuville was sixth, M-Sport Ford’s Pierre-Louis Loubet seventh and Teemu Suninen – on his second Ral🍰ly1 outing with Hyundai Motorsport – eighth. Coming out of retirement for his 210th World Rally Championship start, triple Rally Finland victor Jari-Matti Latvala was the last of the priority Rally1 runners in ninth (two minutes 1.7 seconds).