Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“This was a good day for us. It looked after the first stage this morning that it could be a big fight with our rivals, but the more slippery conditions that came later seemed to suit us better. We could see that the drivers were able to make a big difference on the third stage in the Czech Republic, which was more difficult and slippery. It’s great to watch the battle between Seb and Kalle who have been driving fantastically well: I’m not nervous watching them because they are both very good drivers when it gets slippery and difficult. The same is true of Elfyn, who has recovered well after the penalty. Tomorrow they will be starting further back in the order, where there will be a lot more dirt on the road, so it will become more difficult for them but I know they can handle that. Taka and Sami have shown good speed on some stages as well, and we hope to see more of that.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“I think we had some strong moments during the day but overall it didn’t go as well as we would have hoped – especially on Col de Jan, where we lost a bit of time to Seb and Kalle. On the first pass I was a bit tentative at the start and then had a little overshoot, and didn’t get as close as I would have liked on the second pass either. I seemed to be losing more today in the dirtier sections, so we need to look at that tonight and see why that was. It’s good to get up to third but it’s still very tight and we need to keep pushing.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It has been an enjoyable day driving some really nice stages and being in a big fight through the whole day. Starting third on the road I think we have managed the situation well so far, to be this close to Seb, so I’m pretty happy with the day. We had some good stages and some good times and it’s a tight battle. Tomorrow we have the challenge of being further back in the starting order and seeing how conditions evolve, but I’m sure it will stay really close and we will keep fighting.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“I’ve enjoyed today and this exciting fight with Kalle. We fought the whole day to try and stay in the lead and even though it’s a very small gap, it’s very positive to still be in the lead. Today I don’t think we always had the usual advantage being first on the road on asphalt because it’s been dry and quite dusty, so I think conditions have been more or less fair for everyone which is what we like to see. Tomorrow will not be any easier, and if it rains it can be even more challenging, but we will keep fighting.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It’s been a very challenging day as we expected, especially stages five and six which had a lot more dirt on the road. But we managed to get through with some quite OK stage times. I think we probably lost some time because of our road position which was not ideal, but we are only six seconds away from the podium, so we will keep pushing. It’s not been a bad day, and we will try to be even better tomorrow.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It has been a mixed day in terms of the stages and also for our performance. We had some really good stage times but also some stages where I feel we were a bit too far away from the pace. Of course, I would like to do better but we still need to go step by step and we will try to find something to be more consistent tomorrow. The road position should improve which can help us, but let’s see how the conditions are.”

End of day two (Friday):
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 1h03m29.8s
2 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.6s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +29.5s
4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +32.8s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +35.7s
6 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +46.1s
7 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +56.0s
8 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m55.8s
9 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m50.2s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +3m37.6s
(Results as of 21:00 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?
Saturday is the longest day of the rally at 103.64 competitive kilometres and follows a similar format to Friday. The opening stage runs in Germany before two tests on Czech roads are followed by a tyre-fitting zone in Klatovy. All three stages are then run again in the afternoon.