Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja dominated EKO Acropolis Rally Greece on Saturday, delivered a near faultless performance, taking five stage wins from six – beaten only by Sebastian Ogier on SS10 and then by just 0.1 seconds as the Toyota Gazoo Racing star held on to second overall.

Tanak takes a 43.6 second lead into Sunday’s four stage finale, on the cusp of giving Hyundai their long awaited first victory of the season.

 “We’ve generally had a very good day. Even in the afternoon, it’s true that some bedrock was threatening us sometimes, but generally it was smoother and more consistent – a bit better than expected. We had a good rhythm, and we maintained all day. While we are still in the lead, it’s important to remember that we haven’t scored any points yet and we still have some rough stages to go, including one that is new and very long, so this is always very demanding. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow to bring this home.”

Ogier initially trailed Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux until he clobbered a a piece of Greek countryside which damaged their suspension, but a makeshift fix got them back on the road and to midday service – dropping them to third overall.

While a tyre came off its rim on SS11, Fourmaux was undeterred, and still managed to claim a top-five stage time to retain his overall position. After a tyre came off the rim in stage 11, the rest of day was smooth sailing, and the crew go into Sunday with a comfortable cushion of just under a minute from Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin.

Evans remained a distant fourth after a steady but unspectacular day. The Toyota man repeatedly described the conditions as “very rough” and ended the leg over three minutes off the lead – but with championship rival Thierry Neuville behind, Sunday’s bonus-point opportunities remain critical.

Kalle Rovanperä was running mid-pack before losing his brakes and going off in SS11, while Takamoto Katsuta also went off and became beached in the same test leading to retirement for both Toyota drivers.

It was another bruising leg for Neuville. After losing time to a puncture in the morning, the Hyundai man fought back into fifth overall – though still over a minute behind Evans.

“We had the pace,” Neuville reflected. “But three punctures [this weekend] didn’t allow us to do what we can.”

Grégoire Munster completed the leg sixth despite nursing a faulty handbrake throughout the day. Oliver Solberg continued to lead WRC2 in seventh overall with a comfortable buffer over Gus Greensmith, Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Yohan Rossel.

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Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja ended a rough, puncture-riddled opening day of EKO Acropolis Rally Greece with a three second lead over Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria, giving Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT hope for a repeat win on one of their most successful events.

Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais ended third in their Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Yaris, some 16.9 seconds off the lead, having led the event heading into the mid-day service break.

Thierry Neuville controlled a Hyundai one-two-three after stage three before the Belgian’s miserable luck continued when he suffered a left-front puncture in stage four, the final test of the morning loop, leaving the i20 N trailing home 40 seconds adrift and on three tyres and a rim.

“It was the right decision to carry on,” Neuville explained. “Obviously disappointing, but the rally is long. There are going to be a lot of punctures.”

Behind the leading trio, Sami Pajari continued his impressive form, briefly holding third overall and ending the loop in fourth. He was 4.9sec ahead of Kalle Rovanperä, who has struggled with confidence and reported excessive oversteer in his GR Yaris.

Neuville is sixth, followed by Elfyn Evans, who is enduring a tough start to his Acropolis campaign. First on the road, the Welshman described his car as “really difficult to turn” and dropped 42.5sec off the lead by midday.

Grégoire Munster was eighth, with WRC2 frontrunners Oliver Solberg and Kajetan Kajetanowicz rounding out the overall top 10. Mārtiņš Sesks, Takamoto Katsuta and Josh McErlean all dropped time earlier in the loop after stopping to change wheels.

Ogier’s pace ebbed away in the afternoon, dropping to third behind the top two Hyundais. Fourmaux was on fine form, taking two stage wins on the bounce. Evans was fourth, a solid run after sweeping the road in the morning stages.

Munster held an impressive fifth overall from Katsuta, Rovanperä and Neuville.

Pajari’s great run ended with a mechanical retirement en route to stage six.

Oliver Solberg held a solid 53 second lead in WRC2 over Kajetan Kajetanowicz.

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Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen completed their domination of the fourth round of the World Rally Championship, winning 15 of the 18 stages en route to building a 53.5 second cushion over the eight-time WRC champion Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais.

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were ranked third in all the metrics; overall, Super Sunday and Wolf Power Stage extending their advantage at the top of the championship leaderboard to 43 points.

Rovanperä won the Super Sunday standings and topped the Wolf Power Stage timesheets giving the Finnish Toyota Gazoo Racing crew the maximum haul of 35 points which elevates them to second overall in the title race, up from sixth in one fell swoop.

Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston made it a Toyota 1-2-3-4 exorcising the Japanese driver’s ghost from Safari Rally Kenya where he crashed out on the final stage.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria were the leading Hyundai team in fifth place, followed by Ott Tanak and Martin Järveoja in sixth and the luckless Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe coming home in seventh after a puncture in the penultimate stage cost them a minute.

Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy crashed their M-Sport Ford Puma out of the rally in the morning’s opening stage.

Yohan Rossel and Arnaud Dunand took their second victory of the year in WRC2 and lead the championship after fending off the very close attention of Alejandro Cachón and Borja Rozada in a thrilling battle.

Nikolay Gryazin and Konstantin Aleksandrov brought their Skoda home in third place.

Read Motorsport Monday for the full report. On Monday, obviously!

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Malcolm Wilson, OBE, and founder of title-winning WRC outfit M-Sport, has been nominated as an FIA deputy presidential candidate.

The vacancy exists due to Robert Reid stepping down from his post as deputy president for sport for the governing body.

In a statement, Reid wrote, “I took on this role to deliver greater transparency, stronger governance, and more collaborative leadership.

“Over time, those principles have been increasingly set aside and I can no longer, in good faith, remain part of a system that no longer reflects them.”

Reid, like FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, comes from a rallying background, and that theme continues with Wilson’s nomination.

“I am delighted to nominate Malcolm Wilson OBE for the role of FIA deputy president for sport,” Ben Sulayem wrote in an official FIA statement.

“Malcolm has had a distinguished career in global motorsport. 

“For over 40 years he has competed at the highest level both as a driver and technical partner to teams. 

“This experience will be invaluable to the FIA and our member clubs as we continue to grow grassroots and professional motorsport, driving innovation in the sport to benefit fans, drivers and teams.”

Wilson ‘looking forward to supporting the FIA’s mission’

FIA members will vote on Wilson’s candidacy at the extraordinary general assembly and conference in Macau in June.

“The FIA has played a central role in my career,” said 1994 British Rally Champion Wilson. 

“I very much look forward to supporting the president and all the FIA family in its important mission. 

“There has never been a more exciting time to be in motorsport, and I know first-hand the benefits the sport brings to families and communities across the world.

“I look forward to working with the president for the duration of his current term of office, bringing our sport to new audiences and ensuring we deliver the very best championships for all our competitors.”

Wilson is one of the most influential figures in rallying, his ‘94 British Rally Championship success helped cultivate an enduring partnership with Ford, which has seen his M-Sport enterprise win the WRC Manufacturers’ crown in 2006 and ‘07.

He was awarded an OBE for his services to motorsport in 2009.

Why is there a vacancy in the FIA

Reid divulged further information on Substack regarding his exit from the FIA.

“I ultimately found myself unable to continue within a system that no longer reflected the standards I believe the FIA must uphold,” he wrote.

A key concern for Reid was the FIA’s move to become the self-promoter of the World Rallycross Championship, a decision that goes against the governing body’s standard policy.

 “One of the clearest and most troubling examples of this breakdown involved the internalisation of the World Rallycross Championship,” Reid explained.

“I repeatedly raised concerns, both about the governance process and potential legal implications, and received no response, despite my elected responsibilities and fiduciary obligations. 

“Eventually, I had no choice but to seek external legal advice and support. Only then did I receive a response, but unfortunately it lacked the clarity and rigour I had hoped for. 

“I was told, in broad terms, that the governance process was sound and there was no legal risk. But no evidence or explanation was offered to support those assurances. 

“As someone accountable to the membership and exposed to personal liability, that was simply not acceptable.”

Time will tell whether Wilson accepts Ben Sulayem’s handling of FIA matters.

The president’s term ends this year and will be up for re-election in December.

READ MORE – Pascal Wehrlein first Formula E claimant of FIA President’s Medal

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Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin claimed their maiden Safari Rally Kenya victory giving Toyota Gazoo Racing  their fifth straight win in the modern Safari era. Hyundai secured their best Kenyan result with a two-three podium for Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja and Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe.

Evans, with his second consecutive victory has extended his lead in the Driver’s Championship to 36 points while Toyota Gazoo Racing still leads the Manufacturers standings.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria won the Wolf Power stage and topped the Super Sunday standings, taking the maximum 10 point bonus.

Sami Pajari completed his maiden Safari adventure in fourth overall with Takamoto Katsuta provisionally in fifth assuming he makes it to the final control in what was a very sick sounding car after rolling his GR Yaris one kilometer into the final stage, losing fourth place overall while chasing the Super Sunday win, where he was a mere 0.3 seconds behind Fourmaux going into the Wolf Power Stage.

Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka brought their Puma home in sixth while the final Rally 1 runner, Greek gentleman driver Jourdan Serderidis and Frederic Miclotte took home a couple of points for ninth overall.

Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen retired after Sunday’s first stage with electrical problems

Gus Greensmith and Jonas Andersson made it back-to-back WRC2 African victories in their Skoda Fabia RS, their task made easier after  their major challenger Jan Solans and Rodrigo Sanjuan rolled their Toyota GR Yaris on Sunday’s opening stage.

Read Motorsport Monday for a full rally report on Monday (obviously!)

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Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin survived the six-stage mud bath that was Safari Rally Kenya on Saturday. Overnight rain turned the stages into a quagmire while ongoing rain – torrential at times – shuffled the leaderboard almost by the stage.

Heading out on Saturday morning, Evans had a slender 7.7 second lead over his double world champion teammates Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen but after the day was done, Evans had 1’57.4” in hand over Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja and 4’33.4” over third placed Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, provisionally giving Hyundai their best Safari result since it returned to the WRC calendar in 2021.

The first casualty of the day was Adrien Fourmaux who did not start Saturday, the team elected to save the car for Super Sunday.

Evans took his first stage win of the rally and driving with a fine balance of speed and caution more than doubled his lead on stage 12 after Rovanpera had a left-front puncture.

In stage 11, Neuville lost 1’25” changing a flat tyre and Josh McErlean hit a rock which caused a puncture which they stopped to change. A few km further down the road, the Puma pulled up with a broken steering rack, which cost the Irish duo 20 minutes to repair.

Takamoto Katsuta, still feeling weak and co-driver Aaron Johnston ended the stage with a tyre hanging off the rim, deflating their podium aspirations.

As stage 12 got underway, Munster stopped again for yet another puncture, leaving the M-Sport crew with no more spares. Neuville dropped 42.8 seconds but refused to speak at the end of the stage. He too was ill with a tummy bug so did well in the circumstances. Evans took his second consecutive stage win, extending his lead to 37 seconds.

Stage 13 was largely dry but extremely muddy towards the end; Rovanpera had a puncture and dropped 1’20” to Katsuta who lit up the timing screens, 14.5 seconds quicker through the 28.9km stage – the longest of the day – than Tanak.

It got worse for Rovanpera in stage 13 when he suffered another left-front puncture after going off the road to avoid a large herd of zebra in the road – only in Africa! Evans’ lead mushroomed to 1’32.5” while Tanak closed to within 17 seconds to the #69 Yaris.

Torrential rain began to fall as the stage got underway, with Munster, running second on the road, going completely sideways to his direction of travel but he saved his Puma and continued.

Both Hyundais had issues with the windscreen misting up with Wydaeghe using a selfie-stick and a cloth to wipe the windscreen for Neuville!

Evans had a spin in a straight line as the conditions worsened but Rovanperä’s rally went south in stage 14 when a wishbone broke and although he came home with the second fastest stage time, there was still a long way to go. After the stage finish, he strapped the broken piece with ratchet straps. Would it hold for another 46.6km of stages to run?

Stage 15: it started to rain at the start of the stage but the early runners, Jourdan Serderidis, Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean had the best of the conditions. The later runners all faced significant rain and slippery roads, while Katsuta and Neuville each had a right-front puncture.

It started raining heavily towards the end of the stage, which Munster won followed by McErlean, giving M-Sport Ford a one-two stage result.

Rovanpera limped through the stage, his wheel moving about and unable to put any forces through the left-rear and lost 2’56”, handing Tanak second position.

Evans was in the pound seats with a 2’50” lead with one stage remaining.  The stage start and end were awash and there was no grip, with everyone running wide at some point, especially over the final four km of the stage. Katsuta had another puncture, McErlean was missing his front bumper and Neuville had a misfire, but it was Tänak who took the fastest time, followed by Neuville.

Evans tip-toed through the stage – the rally was his to lose and ended the day with 1’57.4” in hand over Tanak, who had a cushion of 2’36″ over Neuville. Katsuta, Rovanpera – who lost another 3’18.5” in the final stage, and Pajari, who had a steady drive on his maiden visit to Kenya completed the top six

The rally leader played down his chances, saying: “It’s been remarkably difficult out there today. This has definitely been a proper Safari. Even this morning the conditions were really quite tricky after a lot of rain overnight. Then the rain came again immediately as we started the afternoon loop. The conditions were horribly inconsistent, and I was trying to treat everything with care but it’s easy to drop a lot of time. I couldn’t see much at all at the end with so much mud, but I’m happy we managed to get through it. Even with this gap, nothing is guaranteed on this rally. Tomorrow will be demanding and rough and anything can still happen, so we need to stay focused.”

Second placed Tanak said: “There has been a lot of action today, especially this afternoon – it was proper wet and tricky conditions. Unfortunately, we had some trouble with the windscreen again and water in the car, which made it a very demanding loop. The conditions change from stage to stage so you never really know what you are going to find. There is always a new challenge you need to fight and overcome. Tomorrow should be smoother but the roads are still very rough in places.”

Gus Greensmith emerged from the carnage to lead the WRC2 category after fending off Jan Solans, who took the lead on Saturday’s third stage, opening a gap of 19 seconds over his Skoda rival before the brit struck back in the tricky final stage.

Oliver Solberg won three of the day’s six stages but remains over half an hour off the lead.

Sunday’s final day features five stages in total, beginning with a return to Thursday evening’s Mzabibu stage. Oserengoni and Hell’s Gate will then be run twice either side of final service, with the second pass of Hell’s Gate once more serving as the rally-ending Wolf Power Stage.

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Friday, the longest day of the WRC Safari Rally Kenya, was brutal in every sense. Cars arrived back at the final service missing chunks of bodywork, bumpers were torn, slitters were missing but through it all, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin landed up with a 7.7 second lead over Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen, in a now familiar Safari Toyota Gazoo Racing one-two.

The day started with the longest stage of the rally, a nasty sinewy, tight, undulating, damp piece of Kenya but it didn’t stop Ott Tanak and Martin Järveoja from taking an immediate lead after blitzing the 31.4km stage by 2.1 seconds ahead of the reigning world champion Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, giving Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team cause for hope to end their African drought.

Tanak went on to win three of the morning’s stages, heading into service with a handy, if not comfortable 24.4 second lead over Evans.

After the second stage of the afternoon loop, Tanak’s lead had almost doubled to 46.1 seconds before a driveshaft issue lost the i20 N pair 68 seconds over the 13km SS10, and the rally lead.

“It’s been a difficult day, and we’ve erred on the side of caution,” said Evans. “Obviously some guys have had trouble, which is unfortunate, but it’s part of the Safari. It’s a bit frustrating sometimes because you feel like you can take a bit more risk and go a bit faster, but I keep reminding myself where we are.

“It’s a shame for Ott, obviously, to have a mechanical [failure] like that. You never know in this game if it’s because the car has had an impact or if it’s just a standard failure, but it’s a shame for him because he was going well.”

Tänak said: “At the end of the second stage of the afternoon, I noticed we had a driveline issue, but we managed to finish the stage. We then realized it was an issue with the driveshaft but we were unable to remove it before the penultimate stage, so we had to drive through it carefully to stop it from damaging the engine. Luckily, we managed to remove it for the final stage, so we didn’t have to nurse it. We will try to come back tomorrow but we know it’s rough, its demanding and its hard on the car.”

Rovanperä , whose only bother was a spin in stage four, turned up the wick to win the day’s final two stages and close on his teammate with Tanak relegated to third overall some 55.4 seconds off the lead.

Neuville, who started the day in eighth place, incurred a one-minute penalty for leaving the morning service six minutes late, and went on to pick up a jump start penalty and another minute for leaving the midday service six minutes late and suffered two punctures along his climb back up the leaderboard to end the day in fourth.

Takamoto Katsuta ended Friday in fifth after not sleeping the previous night due to a tummy bug. He had two punctures in the day’s opening stage, relegating him to survival mode as he was out of spare rubber.

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen ended their debut Safari in sixth position despite stopping to change a tyre in in morning’s first stage. Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka caught up to the young Finn and were blinded by the Toyota’s dust and hit a rock.

The M-Sport Ford driver had to deal with his Puma going into limp mode and later emerged from stage eight with a missing right-front fender. There were further troubles for the Puma driver who broke a bumper which folded over the air intake, leaving the Luxembourger to manage high engine temperatures, relegating him to 11^th overall.

His young teammate Josh McErlean and co-driver Eoin Treacy had a solid drive to seventh. In stage seven, the Irishman stopped to investigate heat in the cabin, but there was no sign of a fire, which they thought may have been the issue. It turned out to be the spare wheel which came loose and punched a hole in the Puma’s boot, allowing the heat from the squashed exhaust into the cabin – along with loads of dust, leaving the pair to complete the day wearing goggles.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria retired (again) in stage seven with broken right-front suspension after not stopping to change a flat tyre.

Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson lead WRC2 from the start to midway through stage seven when his Printsport-run Toyota GR Yaris bogged down in thick sand.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz ended the day in the WRC2 lead after a fierce battle with Gus Greensmith and Jonas Andersson, the gap between the warring Toyota and Skoda pair 10.2 seconds. Spaniard Jan Solans manhandled his GR Yaris Rally2 to third despite running the final trio of stages without power steering.

Saturday takes crews north to Lake Elmenteita for a trio of tests that are all familiar from previous years: Sleeping Warrior, Elmenteita and Soysambu. All three will be repeated after midday service in Naivasha.

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World Rally Championship drivers have doubled-down on their stance regarding the FIA’s rules on drivers swearing by refusing to answer questions in interviews.

The World Rally Drivers’ Alliance [WoRDA] has issued a statement ahead of this weekend’s Safari Rally Kenya, which says drivers will choose to either remain silent in any obligatory media duties, or answer questions in their respective language, rather than English.

This comes after a similar statement, penned three weeks ago, rebuking a €10,000 fine handed to Hyundai driver Adrien Fourmaux – €20,000 suspended – for swearing in a television interview at January’s Rally Sweden.

The Frenchman’s fine was the catalyst for WoRDA being established, and is, in effect, the WRC’s equivalent of Formula 1’s Grand Prix Drivers’ Association [GPDA], which has also been at loggerheads with the FIA and its president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, regarding his directives which takes a similar no-tolerance approach to drivers’ language at race weekends.

It urged the sport’s governing body for a “mutually agreeable and urgent solution,” and with no apparent communication opened with WoRDA, the new WRC driver alliance has felt it necessary to promulgate a further explanation for its intended upcoming actions.

WoRDA statement in full

“We all agree to keep rudeness at the microphone to a minimum,” the statement read. “At the same time, it is necessary to maintain a certain freedom of expression and to keep emotions alive while drivers don’t need to be afraid of getting punished in any way. 

“We have asked the president of the FIA for some positive changes in the rules to help us achieve this goal.

“For the reasons explained in our statement, it is impossible for us to guarantee that we (drivers and co-drivers) will be able to follow these rules perfectly and systematically.

“This is why we – WoRDA members –  are now taking the responsible decision to remain silent at the end of the interviews or to answer in our mother tongue.In the own interest of our sport, such an action is unfortunately needed, and we apologize to all the rally fans, even though we know they support us in this.”

READ MORE – WRC news from Motorsport Week

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World Rally Championship drivers have penned a strongly-worded statement directed at the FIA regarding its swearing penalties, following a similar act taken by Formula 1 drivers last year.

The World Rally Drivers Alliance [WoRDA] has issued the statement, directed at the sport’s governing body’s President, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, making its stance clear on its measures on drivers swearing.

This comes after an incident at this month’s Rally Sweden, at which Hyundai driver Adrien Fourmoux was fined €10,000 and €20,000 suspended for swearing in a television interview.

The incident was adjudged to have contravened Article 12.2.1.l of the FIA International Sporting Code, also broken by Max Verstappen at the Singapore Grand Prix last year, the Dutchman being handed a community service penalty for the offence.

The statement says that whilst “competitors must abide by the Referee’s decision,” it goes on to say “In recent months, however, there has been an alarming increase in the severity of the sanctions imposed for minor, isolated and unintentional language lapses. This has reached an unacceptable level.”

The statement also lists four key beliefs from the drivers, which are:

• Common colloquialism cannot be considered and judged as equal to genuine insult or an act of aggression.
• Non mother-tongue speakers may use or repeat terms without full awareness of their meaning and connotation.
• Seconds after an extreme adrenaline spike, it is unrealistic to expect a perfect and systematic control over emotions.
• Rally is Extreme: risk level for the athletes, intensity of the focus, length of the days… all the limits are reached. 

The statement goes on to raise the question of where the money paid in fines by the drivers ends-up.

“In such a case we question the relevance and validity of imposing any sort of penalty.

“Moreover, the exorbitant fines are vastly disproportionate to the average income and budget in rallying. 

“We are also concerned with the public impression these excessive sums create in the minds of the fans, suggesting this is an industry where money doesn’t matter. 

“This also raises a fundamental question where does the money from these fines go?”

It concludes by urging for “a direct communication and engagement between the FIA President and WoRDA members to find a mutually agreeable and urgent solution.”

WRC statement mirrors GPDA action on Ben Sulayem

The WRC drivers’ statement takes a similar approach to that of the statement issued by the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association last November, in which it urged Ben Sulayem to “consider his own tone and language” after the President stated that F1 drivers were sounding like “rappers.”

It creates a further bone of contention between another FIA-backed championship and Ben Sulayem, who has been under fire for such alterations of the rulebook.

Another issue that has been raised is the apparent lack of consistency in its penalties being handed-out to drivers.

At this month’s Jeddah E-Prix, Cupra Kiro driver Dan Ticktum swore on his team radio after being informed by his engineers that he would have to reset his car during a Pit Boost recharge, effectively destroying his hopes of scoring any points in the race.

The Brit escaped without punishment, but it is believed that it was due to the broadcast not being aired on the race’s TV coverage.

This however could play into Ben Sulayem’s threat, made at an FIA Officials summit earlier this month, that he is considering looking-into the possibility of a form of ‘shutdown’ of radio communications between driver and team.

READ MORE – Elfyn Evans wins Rally Sweden by a whisker

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The 2025 FIA World Rally Championship got underway with three night stages high up in the French Alps. Under the gaze of tens of thousands of spectators who lit up the night sky with fireworks and flares, Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe ended the trio of stages on top of the standings by two seconds after cautiously threading their Hyundai i20 N through the tricky mountain pass roads.

Conditions ranged from dry and wet tarmac to hidden patches of black ice which Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais conquered to lead after two stages. An expensive spin into a pole in the final stage saw the multiple champion lose 12 seconds and drop to third overall.

“On the first part [of SS3] I was painting the road, and in the last part I was cleaning the road!” Neuville smiled. “Super tricky to keep it on the road. I’m happy with the first day. Overall, our target was to finish today.”

“[It was] difficult of course. A lot of mud on the road and we hit a pole sideways. It’s always lucky to get away with that,” said Ogier at the stop control.

Sandwiched between the Hyundai and Ogier was Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin in their GR Yaris, two seconds off the lead.

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja ended fourth, some 27 seconds adrift of the reigning World Champion with Hyundai’s third crew Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria finishing in fifth. The Frenchman shone on stage two, beating Tanak’s time by 3.1 seconds.

Kalle Rovanpera, returning for a full season campaign with Toyota was a little rusty and ended down in sixth position with M-Sport Ford’s new team leader Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka slotting into seventh in the standings. The Luxembourger hustled his Puma to the fourth fastest time in the final stage of the evening, narrowing the gap to Rovanpera to 4.9 seconds.

Fighting a bout of flu, Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston ended eighth, 4’30” behind the Ford.

Sami Pajari, making his Monte Rally1 debut and with Marko Salminen reading the notes finished a cautious ninth ahead of the top Rally2 team of Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov, now Skoda mounted.

Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy, making their Rally1 debut in the second M-Sport Ford Puma, ended in 12^th position after taking a sensible approach to the start of their new career path.

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