Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“It has been a good start to the rally for us overall. We were happy to see that the rain that was in the forecast did indeed arrive last night and that’s probably helped us a bit with most of our cars running at the front of the road. Oliver and Elfyn both drove very well in the slippery conditions this morning, and continued in that way this afternoon even as it was drying out a bit. Seb and Sami lost a bit of time this morning, but they were much stronger in the afternoon and are in a good fight with Fourmaux. Taka was a bit unfortunate to get stuck this morning, but the car is good to restart tomorrow.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“For us it was nice to see the rain come overnight, even though it made the conditions quite tricky for everyone to start with this morning. The grip levels were changing quite a bit, so I was happy to get through without issues and also benefit a little bit from not having to sweep the road. We had drier conditions this afternoon; the grip was more consistent in a way and the feeling was OK, but we were maybe not quite as fast as we would have liked. Anyway, second is a decent position to be in overnight and gives us a good road position for tomorrow, so we have to take the positives from today and try to keep fighting forward tomorrow.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
“For us the rain was maybe not ideal given our start position a bit further back, but it’s also a deserved break for the championship leaders not to always be cleaning the road. We struggled in the first stage for grip and confidence with the balance of the car, and that’s where we lost most of our time today, but after that I think we reacted well and had a better rhythm over the rest of the day. Tomorrow has a different style of stage with some different challenges and there’s still a lot to play for, so we’ll keep trying.”

Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“I’m very happy with my day. It helped us in our position relatively early on the road to get that rain; I think it made things more equal and I always enjoy those kinds of conditions. It was very tricky and changing all the time, and we just tried to have a good flow and I think we did quite a good job. There was no point to take big risks and I was just trying to drive efficiently. It was similar this afternoon even as the conditions dried out; I just tried to keep it clean and steady. It’s nice to have a good, clean Friday behind us. Strategy will be important tomorrow, but I feel good and I’m looking forward to it.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“After the rain overnight, the roads were quite muddy in places this morning and the grip levels were changing a lot along with the different gravel types. Unfortunately, in one downhill corner which was quite muddy, I just wasn’t able to slow down enough and we went wide to the outside and got stuck on the bank. The car was not really damaged, but we weren’t able to get back on the road and continue in the stage. It’s not an easy moment, but I will just try to focus on coming back stronger.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It was quite a tricky morning for us. Clearly, the conditions were tricky and slippery but others around us made better use of them in the first stage especially and somehow our pace was not the best. It was getting better stage-by-stage during the morning, and then the afternoon was clearly better again for us. I was enjoying the driving and managed to take a stage win, so we were back on the level where we want to be. We’re only three seconds away from the podium positions and there’s still a very long rally ahead, so anything can happen and we just need to keep pushing.”

End of day one (Friday):
1 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 52m42.1s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +10.1s
3 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +18.0s
4 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +19.7s
5 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +21.7s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +27.4s
7 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m54.5s
8 Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m56.9s
9 Esapekka Lappi/Enni Mälkönen (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m06.0s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale) +3m08.7s
43 Takamoto Katsuta/James Fulton (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +59m53.2s
(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, with 139.2 km to be driven across two loops of three familiar stages to the south of Concepción across the Biobío River and overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Compared to Friday, these stages are typically wider and more abrasive.