An asphalt specialist, Duval is part of the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally team and is driving a Focus RS WRC on the next three asphalt events on the WRC Calendar. Duval had finished second in the rally last season and that has increased his chances of winning this event despite being in one of the lesser favourite teams.
The rally shakedown was on a 5.8km stage and in dry and bright conditions, Duval drove across it five times, his third being the best. Dani Sordo came second fastest with his C4 WRC. The Spaniard was just 0.5 seconds off of Duval with championship leader Mikko Hirvonen about two-tenths behind him in his BP-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team’s Ford Focus RS.
But the timings from the shakedown are not enough to boost Duval’s confidence who believes that his 11th place starting position will make it almost impossible to beat 6-time rally winner, Sebastien Loeb.
“My shakedown time was no great surprise because the road is the same as last year and the car doesn’t feel so bad, but tomorrow will be completely different,” said Duval. “My last WRC rally was in Monte Carlo, and one day of pre-event testing is not enough after seven months. The test went okay, but I think tomorrow it will be too difficult to catch Seb from my position on the road. The forecast is for rain, which means lots of mud on the corners for me. I hope I don’t lose too much time - then perhaps I can push a little bit more on Saturday and Sunday. I’d hoped for completely dry conditions, so it looks like it will be very difficult.”
Dani Sordo was happy with what he had for his Citroen C4 WRC and Duval’s time didn’t really affect him. “I think I could have been faster,” said Sordo. “But the most important thing was to test the car and make sure everything was okay. We tried something different with the suspension and I used both the hard and soft compound tyre, and everything was good.”
Hirvonen was also glad that his morning was satisfactory. “The shakedown stage here is one of the best in the WRC,” he said. “It’s very representative of the actual event so it’s very useful. The car went well, and the new parts fitted for this event mean we have a little bit more performance in the engine - it all helps. We had a good test last week and I managed to do some driving on wet and dry roads. Now we have to wait and see how we get on tomorrow.”
