Monte Carlo Rally 2018
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Neuville's made a big inroad into Evans there, taking 13s off the M-Sport Ford and closing the gap to 12.5s as he chases eighth place.
Sordo's now 18s off the pace at the final split. If that loss of speed continues through the afternoon, his third place is going to come under threat from Lappi and Latvala's Toyotas.
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Latvala is slowest on the stage so far, but only a couple of seconds off Ogier and Neuville, and reports that the Toyota's performing much more to his liking now.
He adds that the rain is coming down harder on parts of the stage, making conditions "50/50".
He adds that the rain is coming down harder on parts of the stage, making conditions "50/50".
It's possible this particular Autosport writer predicted Tanak would be the 2018 champion when asked yesterday... Now feeling vindicated - but aware that taking 6s off Ogier on one stage isn't the same as beating him to the title, so calming down now.
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Oh hello Tanak! He finishes the stage 6.5s faster than Ogier and cuts the world champion's lead to 33.9s!
Neuville finishes the stage two tenths off Ogier's pace. But the man to watch is Tanak, who'll be through next.
Stopwatch
Ogier says he was taking it relatively easy on his tyres on that stage. He's completed it in 16m52.0s.
Sordo's pace isn't great - at split one he's 8s off Tanak's pace. This morning he struggled badly with tyre wear as he hadn't realised his mechanics had put the different compounds on the wrong ends of the car, but that should be resolved now.
What we do now is that Tanak is still flying - at the latest split he's 4s faster than Neuville, who had been a touch faster than Ogier the last time we had timing info from Ogier's car.
Split time information has got a little spasmodic further onto the stage, with no time back from Ogier at split two. He's still running OK, we might just have to wait for the stage finish to see if he's lost time to Tanak or not.
Latvala is within 0.4s of Tanak and third fastest at split one. A touch of understeer meant a muted Latvala this morning - he starts the afternoon fifth, 12.7s behind team-mate Lappi ahead.
Onboard footage from the stage shows that there's a reasonable amount of snow on the hills around the stage, but a fairly clear road with just the odd damp section.
Stopwatch
Tanak comes through split one and he's 1.8s faster than Ogier there. He's got a 40.4s gap to close to get on terms with his rally-leading former team-mate.
Neuville is next through and 1.6s faster than Ogier. The gap for Neuville to watch is against Evans, as he's 26s behind as both try to fight up the order following last night's incidents.
Neuville said this morning it's realistic to aim for fifth place. Right now, that's occupied by Latvala, who is three and a half minutes ahead of the Hyundai at present.
That's a big aim for the next two-and-a-bit days.
Neuville said this morning it's realistic to aim for fifth place. Right now, that's occupied by Latvala, who is three and a half minutes ahead of the Hyundai at present.
That's a big aim for the next two-and-a-bit days.
Ogier is past the first split point, and generated an accurate split time, which makes Autosport happy.
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Tyre choices are in, and it's pretty univerasal - everyone on super-softs and just the odd soft around as a spare.
David Evans
The biggest scare of the morning involved Ogier and a dog, which we identified as a St Bernard. Earlier in our Autosport Live coverage you'll have seen a video of the incredible near-miss, and at service DAVID EVANS got Ogier's thoughts on it:
After a typically lengthy chat with his engineers, Sebastien Ogier was happy to be shown footage of the dog moment in SS3.
"I'm so happy that I missed this dog," he told Autosport. "I swerved, but now I know the dog is OK, this is good – it would not have been good with my family!"
Ogier was equally upbeat about the morning, adding: "It's been a good loop and the gap to the driver in second place is bigger than it was, but this is Monte Carlo and everything can change so quickly. There are a lot of very tough stages to come."
After a typically lengthy chat with his engineers, Sebastien Ogier was happy to be shown footage of the dog moment in SS3.
"I'm so happy that I missed this dog," he told Autosport. "I swerved, but now I know the dog is OK, this is good – it would not have been good with my family!"
Ogier was equally upbeat about the morning, adding: "It's been a good loop and the gap to the driver in second place is bigger than it was, but this is Monte Carlo and everything can change so quickly. There are a lot of very tough stages to come."
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Kris Meeke's co-driver PAUL NAGLE is your guide to the stage that's just coming up:
SS6 Vitrolles-Oze 1 (16.60 miles)
This used to be known as the Col de Faye stage when it was the full 50 kilometres (35 miles), it's shorter now but it's still a real challenge. And a pretty famous stage.
The start is different from last year, we've lost around five kilometres from where we began in 2017 and we come in from a different direction. The first six or seven kilometres should be good, if it's not raining it'll be nice dry asphalt.
We have three cols to go over in this stage and there was patches of ice around the first one during the recce – I think these will still be here on the rally as the sun just never gets down into those parts of the road. But the last 10 kilometres or so dry out again and should be back to good asphalt.
SS6 Vitrolles-Oze 1 (16.60 miles)
This used to be known as the Col de Faye stage when it was the full 50 kilometres (35 miles), it's shorter now but it's still a real challenge. And a pretty famous stage.
The start is different from last year, we've lost around five kilometres from where we began in 2017 and we come in from a different direction. The first six or seven kilometres should be good, if it's not raining it'll be nice dry asphalt.
We have three cols to go over in this stage and there was patches of ice around the first one during the recce – I think these will still be here on the rally as the sun just never gets down into those parts of the road. But the last 10 kilometres or so dry out again and should be back to good asphalt.
Right, it's time for the afternoon loop. Will it snow? Will it freeze? Can Tanak hunt down Ogier?
Let's find out. SS6 is just three minutes away.
Let's find out. SS6 is just three minutes away.
Autosport
Here's the full summary of the morning's action - no ice so far today but plenty of drama. We'll be back to bring you the afternoon loop as it happens from 12.55pm UK time: 
And WRC2 has got very, very close - Kopecky has taken the lead from Camilli, but those two and Sarrazin are covered by just 4.8s, with Veiby another 20s back and Rovanpera losing touch.
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SS5 summary:
* Tanak grabs second from Sordo...
* ...but Ogier's lead is up to 40.4s
* Breen's brake problems worsen and he falls to 10th
* Evans goes quickest and is now eighth
* Tanak grabs second from Sordo...
* ...but Ogier's lead is up to 40.4s
* Breen's brake problems worsen and he falls to 10th
* Evans goes quickest and is now eighth
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SS5 results:
Leading stage times:
1 Evans 8m42.6s
2 Tanak +0.3s
3 Neuville +0.7s
4 Ogier +2.4s
5 Latvala +3.5s
6 Lappi +4.2s
Overall leaderboard after SS5:
1 Ogier
2 Tanak +40.4s
3 Sordo +47.5s
4 Lappi +1m04.6s
5 Latvala +1m17.3s
6 Meeke +2m45.1s
7 Bouffier +2m58.8s
8 Evans +4m24.4s
9 Neuville +4m50.3s
10 Breen +5m08.4s
Leading stage times:
1 Evans 8m42.6s
2 Tanak +0.3s
3 Neuville +0.7s
4 Ogier +2.4s
5 Latvala +3.5s
6 Lappi +4.2s
Overall leaderboard after SS5:
1 Ogier
2 Tanak +40.4s
3 Sordo +47.5s
4 Lappi +1m04.6s
5 Latvala +1m17.3s
6 Meeke +2m45.1s
7 Bouffier +2m58.8s
8 Evans +4m24.4s
9 Neuville +4m50.3s
10 Breen +5m08.4s
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"It's brakes, and looking at things I got a little stone between the bleed nipple and the rim on the first stage. On the second stage we had three brakes but now I've got no brakes at all," Breen explains.
Breen had already fallen behind team-mate Meeke this morning and will potentially drop out of the top 10 with this continued trouble.
It began when he clouted a rock on today's opener and caused the initial brake damage, which he hasn't been able to resolve properly between stages.
It began when he clouted a rock on today's opener and caused the initial brake damage, which he hasn't been able to resolve properly between stages.
Breen pulls over to let Lappi through.
Breen looks like he's in even worse brake trouble on this stage as Lappi is catching him on the road - that means Breen's dropped two minutes.
Actually that's not quite true is it - Mikkelsen lost second place to Sordo on the very first stage this morning, Sordo held it for two stages and now it's gone to Tanak.
Sordo is 11.4s off the pace on this stage, and that means we have our third change of second place in as many stages this morning - it goes to Tanak as the cars head for service.
Tanak is massively faster than Sordo on this stage - the Hyundai is 10s off the Toyota at split two. That's going to launch Tanak into second.
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Here's Evans, and he beats Tanak by 0.3s to top the stage so far. Like Neuville, Evans is on a long slog back towards the top 10 after problems last night.
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Latvala comes in 3.2s slower than Tanak and slowest so far. It's been a muted Friday so far for the most experienced of Toyota's three drivers. He's currently fifth overall and wasn't making any inroads on Lappi ahead.
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Here's a bullish verdict on the morning from the recovering Neuville:
"I can't be happy with the result so far because we lost a lot of time but I think that everything is still possible. We have to see the weather but I think fifth place could be possible. Some other drivers had trouble, some are already out, the rally is very long."
"I can't be happy with the result so far because we lost a lot of time but I think that everything is still possible. We have to see the weather but I think fifth place could be possible. Some other drivers had trouble, some are already out, the rally is very long."
Tanak beats Neuville's time and trims 2.1s off the gap to leader Ogier too.
Will that be enough to bring Tanak past Sordo into second overall? He had a 4s deficit to overcome to achieve that.
Will that be enough to bring Tanak past Sordo into second overall? He had a 4s deficit to overcome to achieve that.
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"I'm not so happy with my drive on this one," admits Ogier. "Also the conditions were much drier than I thought and I had my super-softs on. Overall, it was not a bad loop."
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Ogier set a time of 8m45.0s there, which Neuville has just beaten by 1.7s.
Now Neuville has five minutes of earlier losses to recover, so 1.7s won't change his life but it's a good step towards living up to his earlier declaration that he will definitely be back in the top 10 overall by tonight.
Now Neuville has five minutes of earlier losses to recover, so 1.7s won't change his life but it's a good step towards living up to his earlier declaration that he will definitely be back in the top 10 overall by tonight.
All smooth for Ogier on this short stage so far, conditions look decent after the rain of SS4.
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Back in business for the final stage of the morning loop - here's Meeke's co-driver PAUL NAGLE's guide to it:
SS5 Vaumeilh-Claret 1 (9.43 miles)
This stage isn’t very high, it climbs to around 850 metres for the first two thirds and then goes steeper downhill to the finish in the last few miles.
The start is a typical Monte stage with lots of really nice fast and flowing stages, with a few hairpins coming closer to the end – that last section could test the tyres a fair bit at the end of the loop.
SS5 Vaumeilh-Claret 1 (9.43 miles)
This stage isn’t very high, it climbs to around 850 metres for the first two thirds and then goes steeper downhill to the finish in the last few miles.
The start is a typical Monte stage with lots of really nice fast and flowing stages, with a few hairpins coming closer to the end – that last section could test the tyres a fair bit at the end of the loop.
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By: Matt Beer
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