Damage to the panels on the front left, bonnet and roof was quickly repaired by the Hyundai squad but the session was over at this point, limiting the Belgian to just his first run.
“It was a square right, I came into the corner and the ruts were already deeper than on the first pass. The car started to go onto two wheels and I tried to save the situation but we flipped over,” said Neuville.
“Obviously we were hoping for better on the shakedown. It’s a good omen as well because back in Germany a couple of years ago we rolled in shakedown and won the rally. So let’s cross fingers that it will be a similar scenario this weekend!”
Sébastien Loeb was lucky to escape a similar incident, thankfully for the nine-time world champion he managed to hold on as the car flipped up on to two wheels, landing back on all four wheels before continuing on to fourth fastest of the session on his third and final run.
Sébastien Ogier topped the times as he chases down Neuville, the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team driver finished 0.3 seconds faster than the Toyota of Jari-Matti Latvala and his Ford Fiesta WRC team-mate Teemu Suninen in third place.