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Meeke will be back in action under Rally2 this morning after his Friday crash. He's 38th overall now so not in the hunt for any kind of result, but more mileage in the new Citroen will obviously be useful.
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This is what awaits the crews when the stage does begin, described for us by Kris Meeke's co-driver Paul Nagle:
SS9 Lardier et Valencia-Oze 1 (19.36 miles)
Stages nine and 10 are the roads that made up the long stage from Lardier et Valencia to Faye last year. The first 27 of the 31 kilometres is what we did last year, then we turn onto a new road for four kilometres to the finish.
Off the start the road is wide and fast until we go through the village of Lardier. Out of there the stage goes through the fields and it's really quick – like top gear for ages stuff. That's the place where I just keep my head down and keep reading, but you can really feel the speed in the car down there.
This is the stage where Robert [Kubica] crashed and slid off the side of the bridge a few years ago when he was leading early on [in 2014].
The new section right at the end takes us downhill to Oze. On the recce, the conditions here were patchy ice to start with then full snow.
SS9 Lardier et Valencia-Oze 1 (19.36 miles)
Stages nine and 10 are the roads that made up the long stage from Lardier et Valencia to Faye last year. The first 27 of the 31 kilometres is what we did last year, then we turn onto a new road for four kilometres to the finish.
Off the start the road is wide and fast until we go through the village of Lardier. Out of there the stage goes through the fields and it's really quick – like top gear for ages stuff. That's the place where I just keep my head down and keep reading, but you can really feel the speed in the car down there.
This is the stage where Robert [Kubica] crashed and slid off the side of the bridge a few years ago when he was leading early on [in 2014].
The new section right at the end takes us downhill to Oze. On the recce, the conditions here were patchy ice to start with then full snow.
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Back at service, the Citroen team has had a visit from some top brass.
The delay is while officials make sure all the spectators are in safe places - large crowds in the area today for the debut of the new-generation WRC machinery.
Good morning and welcome back to Autosport Live's Monte Carlo Rally coverage, where SS9 is about to start with a slight delay.
Autosport
And here's a full round-up of the afternoon action. We'll have more news from the WRC world for you through the evening, and will be back with full Live coverage of Saturday's stages from 7am UK time tomorrow. 
Autosport
Here are some thoughts from Meeke on the incident that cost him a shot at the podium here: 
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SS8 summary:
* Neuville drops some time when he stalls and fails to reset engine properly
* His lead is down to 45s over Ogier, who storms past Tanak into second with stage win
* Latvala spins but holds fourth
* Breen goes off and loses fifth to Sordo again
* Evans makes some progress back past the WRC2 runners and moves up to eighth
* Neuville drops some time when he stalls and fails to reset engine properly
* His lead is down to 45s over Ogier, who storms past Tanak into second with stage win
* Latvala spins but holds fourth
* Breen goes off and loses fifth to Sordo again
* Evans makes some progress back past the WRC2 runners and moves up to eighth
Stopwatch
SS8 results:
Leading stage times:
1 Ogier 11m05.4s
2 Neuville +7.6s
3 Tanak +19.5s
4 Sordo +27.0s
5 Evans +27.8s
6 Lefebvre +31.7s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Neuville
2 Ogier +45.1s
3 Tanak +45.4s
4 Latvala +2m09.7s
5 Sordo +2m57.8s
6 Breen +3m04.1s
7 Mikkelsen +5m50.8s
8 Evans +8m12.1s
9 Tidemand +8m22.4s
10 Kopecky +8m38.2s
Leading stage times:
1 Ogier 11m05.4s
2 Neuville +7.6s
3 Tanak +19.5s
4 Sordo +27.0s
5 Evans +27.8s
6 Lefebvre +31.7s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Neuville
2 Ogier +45.1s
3 Tanak +45.4s
4 Latvala +2m09.7s
5 Sordo +2m57.8s
6 Breen +3m04.1s
7 Mikkelsen +5m50.8s
8 Evans +8m12.1s
9 Tidemand +8m22.4s
10 Kopecky +8m38.2s
Breen says his time loss there was due to an error - he slid off the road, stalled and struggled to restart for a while. But he's happy with how he's taken the fight to the 2017 machines overall.
Breen is slowest on the stage so far, and that drops him back to sixth behind Sordo, 6s adrift of the 2017 Hyundai in his 2016-ish Citroen.
So that means overall Neuville leads by 45s from Ogier and Tanak, who are just three tenths apart now.
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Tanak's loss of second place doesn't bother him too much - and he says his slow time there was just due to... going slowly.
"I would say the other guys have just been very fast. No drama for me. I'm not so concerned at the moment, I'm really enjoying the car."
"I would say the other guys have just been very fast. No drama for me. I'm not so concerned at the moment, I'm really enjoying the car."
Sordo may well reclaim fifth place from Breen on this one looking at the splits so far.
Meanwhile Latvala is explaining that he spun "on a very icy corner" and had to reverse and then nearly did the same at a hairpin. He estimates his time loss from the errors as being 20s.
Tanak loses 19s to Ogier and 11s to Neuville - and that means he falls behind Ogier to third overall.
Latvala's spin cost him 10s to Sordo - but he had plenty more than that in hand so he'll stay fourth overnight.
Looks like Tanak might have made a mistake early on the stage as he's now back up to full speed. He was fastest of all between splits one and two but is still 9s down on Neuville's pace and 6.6s off Ogier at that point.
Crash
That time loss was due to a glitch for Neuville - he stalled and then couldn't get the Hyundai's engine running cleanly initially.
"I had a problem with the engine. The boost was not working anymore. I stalled in a hairpin and then I had 500 metres [without boost]..." he says.
But he intimates that was more a case of not following the correct reset procedure than the car actually going awry.
"I had a problem with the engine. The boost was not working anymore. I stalled in a hairpin and then I had 500 metres [without boost]..." he says.
But he intimates that was more a case of not following the correct reset procedure than the car actually going awry.
Today seems to have a sting in the tail. Well it had a sting in its head and its tummy too given Ogier, Meeke and Hanninen's mornings.
Crash
Possibly trouble for Tanak too - he is 15s slower than Neuville on the splits. Potential for him to lose second to Ogier here...
Crash
Also reports from the stage that Latvala has had a spin. He had plenty of time in hand over pursuer Sordo, though.
Crash
But maybe a problem for Neuville right at the end - he reaches the finish 7.6s slower than Ogier and the gap between them comes down to 45s.
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And Ogier is at the finish. It should be third place for the champion for now.
"It's been a tough day, the conditions were very difficult," he says. "In the afternoon I had a little bit better feeling with the car and could be a bit more happy with the handling. It's step by step."
"It's been a tough day, the conditions were very difficult," he says. "In the afternoon I had a little bit better feeling with the car and could be a bit more happy with the handling. It's step by step."
Stopwatch
Now we do have some more useful split time information, and Neuville is actually 1.9s faster than Ogier heading onto the final miles of the stage.
Ogier's split times have been a bit sneaky this afternoon - in so far as they're often coming through late or not at all. We know he and Neuville are past split one, but don't yet know how they compare.
Green flag
Ogier is onto SS8 - he won't be able to make huge inroads in 10 miles (and he'll probably be hating the road conditions), but what he does here could make a big difference to whether he can attack Tanak and Neuville in the morning. And this year of course he won't be first on the road on day two anymore.
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One more blast to finish the day - here's Paul Nagle on SS8:
SS8 St Leger les Melezes-La Batie Neuve 1 (10.45 miles)
This is the ski slope stage, but starting 200 metres earlier – we do a full doughnut around the roundabout and then on and up the road.
We start climbing up the ski slope, which is full snow. Last year we took crossed studs and slick tyres and it was 5mph all the way. It's so, so narrow and under the trees… really difficult for a lot of this stage.
We go around a hairpin left just over halfway through and the road starts to drop down, then after a hairpin left when we exit the valley the road changes completely and it's full dry asphalt with just a couple of patches of ice.
The end of this stage is where we hit and bust the sumpguard [in 2016]. They're not using that place this time, it's too rough.
SS8 St Leger les Melezes-La Batie Neuve 1 (10.45 miles)
This is the ski slope stage, but starting 200 metres earlier – we do a full doughnut around the roundabout and then on and up the road.
We start climbing up the ski slope, which is full snow. Last year we took crossed studs and slick tyres and it was 5mph all the way. It's so, so narrow and under the trees… really difficult for a lot of this stage.
We go around a hairpin left just over halfway through and the road starts to drop down, then after a hairpin left when we exit the valley the road changes completely and it's full dry asphalt with just a couple of patches of ice.
The end of this stage is where we hit and bust the sumpguard [in 2016]. They're not using that place this time, it's too rough.
The delays for those two WRC2 cars makes Evans's situation a bit more respectable - helped by his improved pace on that stage too.
He's back up to 10th overall and has Tidemand and Kopecky within 14s ahead.
The shorter final stage of the day was stronger for the DMACKs than the previous two this morning too, so there's a chance Evans could get back to eighth - with just runaway WRC2 leader Mikkelsen ahead of the lower-class cars - by the night the day is done.
He's back up to 10th overall and has Tidemand and Kopecky within 14s ahead.
The shorter final stage of the day was stronger for the DMACKs than the previous two this morning too, so there's a chance Evans could get back to eighth - with just runaway WRC2 leader Mikkelsen ahead of the lower-class cars - by the night the day is done.
Crash
Both Camilli and Bouffier managed to get going again and reach the stage finish, albeit with several minutes lost. Both made errors and hit things, with Camilli having to find his way back onto the road and Bouffier having to change a puncture.
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Quickest on SS7! ????????
#WRC #RAMC3017 #GOgier http://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2nz7-BXcAE9KFb.jpg
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SS7 summary:
* Leader Neuville admits he takes it too cautiously on a stage with less snow and ice than he anticipated...
* ...he only loses a second to nearest rival Tanak...
* ...but the flying Ogier is nearly 20s quicker and back to within 52s of the lead
* Breen passes struggling Sordo for fifth
* Leader Neuville admits he takes it too cautiously on a stage with less snow and ice than he anticipated...
* ...he only loses a second to nearest rival Tanak...
* ...but the flying Ogier is nearly 20s quicker and back to within 52s of the lead
* Breen passes struggling Sordo for fifth
Stopwatch
SS7 results:
Leading stage times:
1 Ogier 24m17.8s
2 Tanak +14.9s
3 Latvala +16.0s
4 Neuville +19.6s
5 Breen +42.8s
6 Lefebvre +47.8s
7 Sordo +54.1s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Neuville
2 Tanak +33.5s
3 Ogier +52.7s
4 Latvala +1m40.3s
5 Breen +2m31.0s
6 Sordo +2m38.4s
Leading stage times:
1 Ogier 24m17.8s
2 Tanak +14.9s
3 Latvala +16.0s
4 Neuville +19.6s
5 Breen +42.8s
6 Lefebvre +47.8s
7 Sordo +54.1s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Neuville
2 Tanak +33.5s
3 Ogier +52.7s
4 Latvala +1m40.3s
5 Breen +2m31.0s
6 Sordo +2m38.4s
Evans is now nearly eight minutes off the lead in what will probably become 10th overall. But once off the ice, expect better things from the DMACKs.
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Evans finishes the stage 1m34.0s off the pace. That's a fair bit better than the morning at least.
"We're still here, we're still learning..." he says, sounding more chipper than you might expect.
"We're still here, we're still learning..." he says, sounding more chipper than you might expect.
Crash
Also looks like Bouffier has stopped on the stage. He was 10th overall, third in WRC2 behind Mikkelsen and Kopecky's Skodas (with Tidemand's unregistered R5 car in the middle).
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Breen felt that stage had "too much of the black stuff" - his old-spec car does well when the snow's interfering with traction, but he thinks the faster 2017-rules cars can stretch their legs in the dry sections.
But that hasn't stopped him getting ahead of a 2017 Hyundai for fifth.
But that hasn't stopped him getting ahead of a 2017 Hyundai for fifth.
Crash
Reports from the stage that ex-WRC man Camilli has put his WRC2 Ford off the road. He'd been poised to take 11th overall from Evans based on the split times.
As predicted, Breen gets back past Sordo into fifth place - he's 11.3s quicker on the stage and that puts him 7s in front overall.
By: Geoff Creighton
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