First to set off on dry asphalt, World Cup leader Thierry Neuville has already forged a nice advantage of 6.6 over his main rival Elfyn Evans, 14.5 over the other Toyota of Sébastien Ogier and 17.8 over his teammate Ott Tanak. The others are still much further away.
“However, I felt like I was slow. I quickly overheated my tires and I was understeering a lotexplained our compatriot wearing four soft tires. So much the better if the weather is good.”
Behind the Belgian, the competitors suffered from a road that got dirty very quickly.
“It is not possible to go faster in these conditions. There is a lot of mud thrown from the ropes,” confessed the eight-time champion Ogier, also victim of a slow puncture on the right front. But be careful, the Toyota drivers were driving with three hard tires. An option that could pay off at the end of the loop.
Andreas Mikkelsen went straight and lost fifty seconds, eight less than Grégoire Munster: “We have the worst position on the road which evolves after each pass. We therefore cannot trust the corrections of our ushers which are no longer correct. And what's more, our choice of tires was not ideal for this special. It will be better in the next one.”
