Elfyn Evans added to his Rally GB lead on Friday afternoon to end the first full day of World Rally Championship action in Britain with a 25-second advantage.
M-Sport driver Evans picked up where he left off at the start of the afternoon loop by winning SS5 Myherin, going 4.3 seconds faster than anyone else in his DMACK-shod Ford Fiesta.
Evans was then beaten to the fastest time on the next two stages by Sebastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville respectively, but still stretched his lead over closest challenger and team-mate Ott Tanak to 24.6 seconds.
Tanak had looked feisty in the morning but was slower than Ogier on all three stages of the repeat loop – although he will head into the second day with 2.2s over his M-Sport team-mate.
Ogier’s victory on SS6 Sweet Lamb was his first since Thursday evening’s superspecial, and was part of a stronger afternoon loop that hoisted him back onto the tail of his team-mates, with M-Sport cars currently occupying a 1-2-3 in the order.
Neuville’s SS7 stage win was the first non-Fiesta victory of the event, and elevated him to fourth in the order.
The Belgian complained that we was not happy with his Hyundai i20 after his stage-winning run through Hafren, but he would be three tenths away from Ogier in the overall order without a 10-second penalty incurred overnight.
Toyota driver Jari-Matti Latvala and Kris Meeke, who lost two positions on the afternoon’s final stage in his Citroen C3 – separate Neuville and his team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen in the classification.
The third and fourth Hyundais of Dani Sordo and Hayden Paddon are eighth and ninth in the order, whle Juho Hanninen is 10th.
Craig Breen stopped on the final stage of the day, with Citroen team-mate Meeke reporting his C3 was stuck in a ditch.
He earlier lost time on the first Hafren run with a slow puncture.
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Leading positions after SS7
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elfyn Evans, D.Barritt | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 1h09m20.9s |
| 2 | Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 24.6s |
| 3 | Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 26.8s |
| 4 | Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 37.1s |
| 5 | Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | Toyota | 41.9s |
| 6 | Kris Meeke, P.Nagle | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 42.0s |
| 7 | Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 52.0s |
| 8 | Dani Sordo, M.Marti | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 1m13.9s |
| 9 | Hayden Paddon, S.Marshall | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 1m22.9s |
| 10 | Juho Hanninen, K.Lindstrom | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | Toyota | 1m43.5s |
| 11 | Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | Toyota | 1m50.0s |
| 12 | Mads Ostberg, E.Axelsson | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 2m00.8s |