Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“Generally I’m very happy tonight with how our rally has started. I could see already in shakedown that Seb’s confidence levels were high and he started the rally very strongly. He showed a great performance and to be leading the rally after the first day is really nice. Taka started with a careful approach but he was improving his pace all the time so it’s been generally a good start for him as well. Unfortunately Elfyn already got damage to one of his tyres very early on and then had to be more careful in order to get through the loop. But overall I’m pleased with our performance at the start of the rally, as this hasn’t been the easiest event for us in the past, and hopefully we can continue this progress, but tomorrow will be a long and tough day for everybody.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s been a tough start for us. Picking up a puncture near the end of the first stage was not ideal, and then both times through the second stage of the loop was difficult for us. We struggled with the feeling in there and we were having to be careful with no spare tyre left to use. It was just a pity that happened so early on because that made it hard to manage the wear across the rubber we had left. It’s a long and difficult rally to go still and we’ll keep going and see what comes. We need to keep learning on this type of surface, try to find improvements and keep working towards where we want to be.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“We’re in the lead tonight so it’s been a positive start. It’s been tough: we expected a difficult loop with some abrasive sections that would be tough for the tyres, especially this first stage, Osilu-Tergu. It was also my first time driving this stage in that direction. Still, we went with an aggressive choice of five tyres for the afternoon and I did have to take care a little bit in some sections to manage it, but it’s nice to be in the lead. We made a positive step today that now gives us the optimum start position for tomorrow, but the gap to second place is close so it’s going to be an intense fight.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“We are not in a bad position tonight. I’m not fully happy with myself, I was struggling a bit through most of the stages and it was bit of a pity that I could not finish one place higher to get the better road position for tomorrow. But still there’s a long way to go. I just need to find what I can improve in my driving to be better tomorrow, and to push with a bit more confidence. With no mid-day service, there’s not much we can change on the car during tomorrow so as drivers we will need to adapt, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

End of day one (Friday):
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 53m43.1s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +4.5s
3 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +33.2s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +34.5s
5 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +36.6s
6 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +57.3s
7 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +1m09.2s
8 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +1m34.6s
9 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Loris Pascaud (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1m52.9s
10 Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +2m03.2s
(Results as of 19:30 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?
Saturday heads further east and features over half of the competitive distance, with 149 km to be driven without mid-day service. Two stages will be run twice in the morning, before a tyre-fitting zone and another two stages – including the famous Monte Lerno – are tackled twice in the afternoon.