WRC Argentina
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Meeke is one of several drivers reporting being launched by a big bump/compression early on the stage. Breen admits that surprise cost him some confidence in the opening miles. "Really, really not nice," he says.
Paddon makes it to the finish, having lost just under two and a half minutes.
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So the provisional rally order is 1 Evans, 2 Meeke, 3 Sordo, 4 Latvala, 5 Neuville, 6 Ogier, 7 Breen, 8 Tanak
The only person on the stage now who's likely to shuffle that order is Mads Ostberg.
The only person on the stage now who's likely to shuffle that order is Mads Ostberg.
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Incredible time by Evans - he's 4.6s quicker than anyone else and launches himself into the rally lead by 6.4s! (Putting in a quick one on last night's superspecial helped too)
Paddon's car has started moving again after whatever that problem was. Not clear how much time he's lost yet.
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OK, on the splits further back, Evans is currently on course to take the rally lead on the DMACK tyres... He's 4.2s faster than Meeke at the final split.
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Tanak puts his poor time down to a handling problem, but says "I have an idea of what we need to do".
Crash
Problems for last year's winner: Paddon is reported stopped on the stage.
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Meeke passes the finish and after keeping us in suspense with his lack of split times, he goes fastest of all and takes the rally lead by half a second over Sordo for now.
Breen is in now too and is fifth overall, ahead of Tanak.
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Ogier explains his little incident: "We had a wrong pace note in a very tight corner so I went into a ditch a little bit".
He reckons that cost him 5-6s, and that the road was a bit loose and slippery in the final miles too. The car has no significant damage from that excursion.
He reckons that cost him 5-6s, and that the road was a bit loose and slippery in the final miles too. The car has no significant damage from that excursion.
Stopwatch
Sordo is fastest of all by 5.1s, so leads the rally by 6.3s over Latvala at present with five cars in.
In between the blobs of green (that's rallying's version of purple, Formula 1 timing screen fans) are some blank greys - that's because the Citroens of Craig Breen and Kris Meeke aren't triggering any split times so their performance is currently a mystery. Both are still moving at competitive pace on the tracking system though so it's just a timing glitch.
Tanak completes the stage 10.9s off Latvala's benchmark, putting him in a relatively distant fourth overall right now.
Stopwatch
The blobs of green further down the timing screen suggest road conditions are clearing up considerably for those further back - on split one times now it's Elfyn Evans fastest of all ahead of last year's Argentina winner Hayden Paddon.
Right now, the provisional leaderboard is Latvala leading by 1.9s over Neuville and 3.8s over Ogier.
Stopwatch
Neuville is 2.4s slower than pacesetter Latvala, but 3.5s quicker than Ogier.
Further back, Dani Sordo is flying - he's 3s faster than anyone else at the second split.
Further back, Dani Sordo is flying - he's 3s faster than anyone else at the second split.
Reports from the stage end that Ogier's time loss was due to a bit of a misadventure, signs of slight damage on the front of the Fiesta.
Tanak is the first driver who didn't gain time on Ogier in the middle of the stage, he actually dropped a bit more to his M-Sport team-mate and is 2.4s down now.
Stopwatch
Latvala is in too, and he's 5.9s faster than Ogier so into a provisional (very provisional as we've only got two cars in) rally lead.
Ogier reaches the finish, let's see if that time loss was a problem, tricky road conditions or just Latvala's Toyota going faster.
So Latvala took 5.1s out of Ogier in five miles, and Neuville gained 2.9s on him there.
Ogier's lost ground in the middle of the stage - by split two Latvala is 4.2s faster, and Neuville's 1.5s up on the champion there too.
David Evans
The weather for the remainder of the week is expected to be settled and sunny – quite a change from the recce, when it poured with rain.
"There was a fair bit of mud around on the recce," Kris Meeke told Autosport.
"It wasn't an easy one, but in many ways you'd rather have it that way than the other.
"It's better to have the notes slightly more cautious because of the wet weather than have notes made in the dry that are then being used in compromised conditions.
"Either way, a rally like this one always needs to be given a huge amount of respect."
Meeke's Citroen team-mate Craig Breen echoed those sentiments and admitted his first trip to Argentina was totally living up to his expectations.
"It's an amazing place and nothing really prepares you for the scenery out on the recce. At times, I genuinely thought we were driving through an Indiana Jones movie!"
"There was a fair bit of mud around on the recce," Kris Meeke told Autosport.
"It wasn't an easy one, but in many ways you'd rather have it that way than the other.
"It's better to have the notes slightly more cautious because of the wet weather than have notes made in the dry that are then being used in compromised conditions.
"Either way, a rally like this one always needs to be given a huge amount of respect."
Meeke's Citroen team-mate Craig Breen echoed those sentiments and admitted his first trip to Argentina was totally living up to his expectations.
"It's an amazing place and nothing really prepares you for the scenery out on the recce. At times, I genuinely thought we were driving through an Indiana Jones movie!"
Ott Tanak is past split one too, and is 1.2s off Ogier, so a touch quicker than Neuville and a bit off Latvala.
Start order for this stage: Ogier, Latvala, Neuville, Tanak, Sordo, Breen, Meeke, Paddon, Evans, Hanninen, Ostberg, Bertelli (and then Valeriy Gorban's old Mini).
Stopwatch
Neuville is past split one and he's 1.4s off Ogier there. That definitely suggests Ogier isn't having to do a lot of road cleaning.
Very, very early days (minutes), but Ogier is nine tenths up on Latvala at split one. They were already 2.1s apart from the superspecial last night.
David Evans
Here's the view at the end of SS2 waiting for the first cars
Normally this would probably be a fairly miserable day of road-sweeping for Ogier, but recent rain will reduce the loose-surface headache today.
Ogier, Latvala and Neuville are all onto the stage, with championship leader Ogier past split one.
The organisers say the stage will start five minutes behind schedule, so two minutes from now.
As it's Friday, we're in championship order, so Ogier will be followed by Jari-Matti Latvala's Toyota then Thierry Neuville's Hyundai.
Slight delay to the start of the stage at the moment. Not yet clear why. Ogier sits poised on the startline.
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The first full-on stage is five minutes away, here's what to expect:
SS2 San Agustin – Villa General Belgrano (12.39 miles)
Not used since 2008 and even that incarnation from nine years ago has been lengthened with a couple of miles added on at the start.
This stage goes up and over the top of a mountain and is not nearly as quick as the other two Calamuchita test.
This one has plenty of tight, technical sections – but one of the highlights are the views back down the valley from the side of the road.
Given that this stage was unused 12 months ago, this stage will give drivers absent from the 2016 rally (Kris Meeke, Craig Breen and Juho Hanninen) an opportunity to make use of a more level playing field.
SS2 San Agustin – Villa General Belgrano (12.39 miles)
Not used since 2008 and even that incarnation from nine years ago has been lengthened with a couple of miles added on at the start.
This stage goes up and over the top of a mountain and is not nearly as quick as the other two Calamuchita test.
This one has plenty of tight, technical sections – but one of the highlights are the views back down the valley from the side of the road.
Given that this stage was unused 12 months ago, this stage will give drivers absent from the 2016 rally (Kris Meeke, Craig Breen and Juho Hanninen) an opportunity to make use of a more level playing field.
David Evans
Last night's superspecial was, once again, a huge hit with the local fans. Typically, the organisers ran the cars in reverse order and the R5 cars built the atmosphere nicely.
But nothing prepared anybody for the noise of the 2017 World Rally Cars through the streets of Cordoba. Hearing the raucous engine note and firecracker anti-lag bouncing off the walls of the surrounding houses and office blocks was incredible.
Fastest? Sebastien Ogier by nine-tenths from Elfyn Evans and Dani Sordo.
Ogier's Ford Fiesta WRC had been given a precautionary gearbox change after shakedown and before the start.
He told Autosport: "The team found something on the data after shakedown. I didn't feel anything at all, it was a change made just to be safe and nothing else."
Team principal Malcolm Wilson confirmed the data had revealed some anomalies on the hydraulic pressure levels within the transmission.
Asked if he would be prepared to refit the gearbox should Ogier have a problem with the new unit fitted ahead of SS1, Wilson replied: "Yes, absolutely. This has nothing to do with the hardware, with the actual gearbox itself.
"It's something the guys picked up on on the data and it's a genuine case of it being better to be safe than sorry."
But nothing prepared anybody for the noise of the 2017 World Rally Cars through the streets of Cordoba. Hearing the raucous engine note and firecracker anti-lag bouncing off the walls of the surrounding houses and office blocks was incredible.
Fastest? Sebastien Ogier by nine-tenths from Elfyn Evans and Dani Sordo.
Ogier's Ford Fiesta WRC had been given a precautionary gearbox change after shakedown and before the start.
He told Autosport: "The team found something on the data after shakedown. I didn't feel anything at all, it was a change made just to be safe and nothing else."
Team principal Malcolm Wilson confirmed the data had revealed some anomalies on the hydraulic pressure levels within the transmission.
Asked if he would be prepared to refit the gearbox should Ogier have a problem with the new unit fitted ahead of SS1, Wilson replied: "Yes, absolutely. This has nothing to do with the hardware, with the actual gearbox itself.
"It's something the guys picked up on on the data and it's a genuine case of it being better to be safe than sorry."
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Hello and welcome to Autosport Live as we kick off our coverage of Rally Argentina.
By: Matt Beer
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