First on the road was two-times Intercontinental Rally Challenge series Champion Luca Rossetti and co-driver Matteo Chiarcossi (Fiat Abarth Grande Punto S2000). After SS1, he had this to say: “It was very difficult, very slippery. It is hard to find the brake points. I’m not happy with the setup.”
This 14.30km-long opening stage was won by Freddy Loix (Skoda Fabia S2000) with a time of 07m 53.0s. Britons Guy Wilks and Phil Pugh (Peugeot 207 S2000) were second quickest with 03.5sec behind, followed by Frenchmen Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri (Peugeot 207 S2000) only 04.6sec adrift and Pieter Tsjoen/Lara Vanneste (Peugeot 207 S2000) 12.2sec off the leaders. Rounding out the top five is Hans Weijs jr/Bjorn Degandt (Skoda Fabia S2000).