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"It felt very, very slippery and I couldn't get the grip," Latvala says. "I thought the time would be ok but it would appear not, but this is a very, very long rally so there's no panic yet."
Stopwatch
Jari-Matti Latvala is the next to complete SS3. His time is 10m55.9s, 12.6s shy of Mikkelsen's benchmark.
Teemu Suninen is showing early promise in this stage. On par with Mikkelsen in the early splits.
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"It's difficult to push hard when you've lost so much time," Evans said. "We have to keep going and see what we can salvage from the weekend."
Evans' time is a 10m54.8s, 11.5s slower than current stage winner Mikkelsen.
Neither Elfyn Evans or Jari-Matti Latvala are setting the timing screens alight. Evans remember is 13 minutes down after breaking a steering arm in the previous stage.
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"It was a clean stage with some new parts added this year which were quite tricky. We are very happy so far," Mikkelsen said.
He is 15.5s ahead of Neuville who provisionally holds second.
Stopwatch
And he sets a 10m43.3s, a time 2.8s faster than Tanak. The Norwegian extends his lead in the process.
Andreas Mikkelsen is continuing to fly! The Norwegian is 4.3s up on his team-mate in the penultimate split.
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"We got a puncture early on," Lappi reveals. "Now we only have four tyres left for the morning so need to keep it in the middle of the road."
Meanwhile Lappi has completed SS3 12.6s slower than Tanak. He's 15.8s overall.
Mikkelsen is continuing his early form, matching Tanak's splits so far.
Understeer or no understeer, the Estonian is now just 0.1s behind Neuville overall, overhauling Ogier in this stage.
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"This one was a bit drier but we managed to improve our car, we had a big issue with understeer before but it's kind of compromised," Tanak said.
Stopwatch
And Tanak does it! A 10m46.1s is the fastest time through so far, 1.5s faster than Neuville.
His team-mate Lappi isn't doing as well, 9.2s down half-way through SS3.
Tanak is continuing to set fastest split times as he nears the end of the stage.
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"I expected the road to clean a little bit more, but it looks like we were not fast enough," Ogier admitted.
Stopwatch
Ogier is now through and sets a 10m52.4s. That's 4.8s down on Neuville's benchmark which drops him 6.2s behind overall.
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"We pushed much harder in this stage, it was a lot drier," Neuville said. "The road will definitely clean but we pushed hard."
Stopwatch
Neuville has set the first time of SS3, a 10m47.6s.
Tanak meanwhile is on the pace, 1s up on Neuville through the early part of the stage.
He is 2.7s down after the second split too. Neuville is nearing the end of the test.
Ogier is 1.3s down on Neuville through the first split, so is losing more ground to his championship rival.
Ogier will be next through, followed by Tanak, Lappi and rally leader Mikkelsen
And he clears the first split in 1m55.2s. Let's see how his rivals compare.
Green flag
Neuville is now onto the stage.
Andreas Mikkelsen now leads the rally, but it'll be his team-mate Thierry Neuville who starts the stage first as championship leader.
The drivers are lining up to start SS3. It would appear that the rain has evaporated a little so tyre choice could be crucial as the morning continues.
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SS3 Castelsardo (9.02 miles)
"This stage is familiar from before, but there’s a new section at the start and the finish. It’s narrow, but a bit quicker than the first stage. There’s a lot of overhanging branches and tricky places after the start – you have to be quite patient with the car in this early section.
After a short stretch of Tarmac we’re back onto the gravel and the road opens out a little bit through the fields.
This stage will clean quite a lot, a fair bit of gravel has been laid down to repair the road. The last section is uphill, narrow and technical again."
"This stage is familiar from before, but there’s a new section at the start and the finish. It’s narrow, but a bit quicker than the first stage. There’s a lot of overhanging branches and tricky places after the start – you have to be quite patient with the car in this early section.
After a short stretch of Tarmac we’re back onto the gravel and the road opens out a little bit through the fields.
This stage will clean quite a lot, a fair bit of gravel has been laid down to repair the road. The last section is uphill, narrow and technical again."
Here is what Hayden Paddon's Seb Marshall has to say about the test.
The next stage will begin in 15 minutes time at 09:48 local time. At 9.02 miles it is of considerable length but not as long as the stage that has just been completed.
Behind the main class we have the WRC2 runners, and there is an early surprise after the first stage. Lukasz Pieniazek leads Jan Kopecky but only by 1.3s.
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So after last night's superspecial and the first gravel stage of the rally, Andreas Mikkelsen has established an early lead.
1. Andreas Mikkelsen 20m30.9s
2. Mads Ostberg +10.9s
3. Thierry Neuville +11.2s
4. Jari-Matti Latvala +11.5s
5. Sebastien Ogier +12.6s
1. Andreas Mikkelsen 20m30.9s
2. Mads Ostberg +10.9s
3. Thierry Neuville +11.2s
4. Jari-Matti Latvala +11.5s
5. Sebastien Ogier +12.6s
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"It's a really, really tough stage," he said. "In the narrow sections it's getting very muddy so we are worse off being down here in the running order but we will see what we can do."
Hayden Paddon is also now clear of this morning's first stage, setting an 18m45.3s. That's currently the slowest time through so far bar Evans.
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"We just couldn't get is slowed down for a right hander and we touched a bank which broke the steering arm," Evans said. "We managed to change it but obviously we've lost a lot of time."
Elfyn Evans is through the stage now but 13 minutes down.
By: Matt Beer
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