World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Ogier will head into Saturday with a lead of 33.6 seconds over Thierry Neuville, after winning three out of four stages in Corsica on Friday.
Although he started the afternoon loop with a lead of 21.2s, Ogier said he drove the first stage of the afternoon – the second pass through La Porta-Valle di Rostino – with the “same level of attack” as in the morning.
Ogier won that stage, going 10.3s faster than Neuville, and extended his advantage to over 30 seconds.
Neuville then edged Ogier in the final stage, but only by a tenth of a second.
After the stage, Neuville admitted that he had to accept he couldn’t beat Ogier this weekend and needs to focus on keeping hold of second place.
Neuville took second place from Citroen’s Kris Meeke on the third stage of the day and increased his advantage to 5.1s by the end of the shorter Piedigriggo – Pont de Castirla run.
Meeke’s team-mate for this weekend, Sebastien Loeb, was Ogier’s closest challenger after the opening stage of the rally, but his Citroen C3 slid off the road on the very next stage, which prematurely ended his day.
Loeb has confirmed he will return to the rally on Saturday “just for fun”.
Ott Tanak is the leading Toyota driver in fourth overall, ahead of his team-mate Esapekka Lappi, who leapt from seventh to fifth place after winning the final stage of the day.
He demoted the M-Sport Fiesta of Elfyn Evans to sixth position, as the Welshman continues to adapt to working with former WRC champion co-driver Phil Mills, while his regular co-driver Daniel Barritt recovers from a Rally Mexico crash.
Part-time 2018 Hyundai driver Dani Sordo ended the day in seventh place, ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala.
Sordo’s Hyundai team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen bemoaned an understeering i20 as he struggled to ninth overall on the opening day.
The third M-Sport Fiesta of Bryan Bouffier completed the top 10.
Asphalt specialist Jan Kopecky leads the WRC2 category ahead of Yoann Bonato in the Citroen C3 R5, which is making its competitive debut this weekend.
Leading positions
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford | 1h19m39.0s |
| 2 | Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 33.6s |
| 3 | Kris Meeke, P.Nagle | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 38.7s |
| 4 | Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 44.2s |
| 5 | Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 1m13.5s |
| 6 | Elfyn Evans, P.Mills | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford | 1m13.8s |
| 7 | Dani Sordo, C.del Barrio | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 1m14.4s |
| 8 | Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 1m25.0s |
| 9 | Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 1m29.2s |
| 10 | Bryan Bouffier, X.Panseri | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford | 1m44.8s |
| 11 | Jan Kopecky, P.Dresler | Skoda Motorsport II | Skoda | 4m28.0s |
| 12 | Ole-Christian Veiby, S.R.Skjaermoen | Skoda Motorsport II | Skoda | 5m35.9s |
| 13 | Stephane Lefebvre, G.Moreau | Citroen Total Rallye Team | Citroen | 5m38.4s |
| 14 | Hiroki Arai, G.MacNeall | Tommi Makinen Racing Oy | Ford | 6m42.3s |
| 15 | Lukasz Pieniążek, P.Mazur | Printsport Oy | Skoda | 14m03.1s |