The Finn, a three-time winner of the event, saved his best for last on the 4.08km Kastre warm-up near Tartu. After opening with a 1min 59.6sec effort, Rovanperä improved steadily before setting the benchmark on his third pass in 1min 56.3sec.
“It’s so nice to be back here, my favourite event of the year,” Rovanperä said. “It’s good to be back on the Estonian roads. Obviously, [so far] this year the feeling has been not as good as before with the car and everything, but the feeling [after shakedown] is not so bad. We will go for it and see what happens.”
Thierry Neuville led the Hyundai charge in third, just 0.1sec slower than Katsuta, while local hero Ott Tänak placed fourth in his i20 N Rally1. Tänak had briefly topped the times with a 1min 57.8sec run but was shuffled down the order as others improved.
Oliver Solberg impressed on his top-flight return with the fifth-best time in a one-off GR Yaris Rally1 outing, one-tenth a second up on M-Sport Ford hotshot Mārtinš Sesks.
“It’s just absolutely incredible,” the Swede grinned. “What a car – it’s so nice to drive. The road here is very different to our test, so I just tried to get the feeling in the loose sand, but the feeling was very good.”
Toyota men Sami Pajari and Elfyn Evans were seventh and eighth as Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) and Puma pair Josh McErlean and Grégoire Munster completed the top 11.
Delfi Rally Estonia kicks off this evening with a city-centre start in Tartu followed by a short super special stage. The event features 20 competitive tests across fast Estonian roads totalling more than 300km.