Jan Kopecky quickest on opening night of Targa Florio

The works Skoda driver had to wait until some time after the Citta di Palermo spectator stage before being elevated to his deserved rally lead. Initially Rashid Al Ketbi's Skydive Skoda had been credited with the fastest result and a 3.3-second lead, but his time was disallowed as he had inadvertently taken the wrong route on part of the stage.

Kopecky therefore picked up the overnight lead with a 0.6-second advantage over Skoda UK's Andreas Mikkelsen, who is just a tenth in front of Paolo Andreucci's FPF Peugeot.

The rally commences in earnest on Friday morning.

Leading positions after SS1:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time/Gap
 1.  Jan Kopecky         Skoda              1m39.8s
 2.  Andreas Mikkelsen   Skoda UK            + 0.6s
 3.  Paolo Andreucci     FPF Peugeot         + 0.7s
 4.  Craig Breen         Sainteloc Peugeot   + 1.1s
 5.  Matteo Gamba        Peugeot             + 2.2s
 6.  Giandomenico Basso  A-Style Ford        + 2.4s
 7.  Sepp Wiegand        Skoda Deutschland   + 2.7s
 8.  Alessandro Perico   United Peugeot      + 2.9s
 9.  Umberto Scandola    SA Skoda            + 4.2s
10.  Marco Runfola       Peugeot             + 5.7s