WRC Tour of Corsica
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Further back, keep an eye on Abbring - he's just eight tenths behind Evans at the middle split. This stage is working well for the unsung young guns.
Crikey.
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Evans is amazed to be leading: "It didn't feel great to be honest, I said to Dan at the end that it didn't feel like a good time - I didn't feel I was carrying any speed."
That is absolutely extraordinary for M-Sport's young Welshman, whose drive appeared in jeopardy just three weeks ago after a poor performance in Australia. Malcolm Wilson had to deny he was going to sack Evans. Now his man is leading.
Stopwatch
Evans is fastest on the stage by half a minute and leads the rally by 22s over Latvala!
But it's all eyes on Elfyn Evans...
Meeke is in, third fastest on the stage for now, but he loses a place overall to Mikkelsen. They were both in the lower top 10 earlier.
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Ostberg finishes the stage third fastest, 7.4s down on Mikkelsen, our current pacesetter. Hard to tell how that will affect things overall for now.
"You have no idea how difficult it is," says Ostberg. "I'm a little bit lost for words. I had no confidence. There was so much water and gravel and rocks in the road."
"You have no idea how difficult it is," says Ostberg. "I'm a little bit lost for words. I had no confidence. There was so much water and gravel and rocks in the road."
Kubica has reached the second split and it's nothing too exciting - he's 10s off the pace the Latvala group was doing at that stage. It looks like he'll be falling behind Latvala overall, with Evans leapfrogging everyone.
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Mikkelsen is very surprised to be faster than Latvala: "We had a really bad run, I had no feeling with the brakes at all. I pushed the pedal but nothing happened. When the car is not braking in these conditions, it's not really good for the confidence."
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Mikkelsen is in and fastest so far, 4s quicker than Latvala - but at the final split, the flying Evans is a massive 26s up on that.
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Latvala says he "took it very, very carefully. I didn't risk anything, tried to just make it a clear run and get through".
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Ogier explains what went wrong: "I didn't feel anything. I knew it was going to be a lottery with the rain and so many rocks. I didn't hit anything, but we had a slow puncture and stopped."
But Latvala's split times weren't too sharp - a couple of seconds off what Mikkelsen and Ostberg were doing, and a fair way off Evans.
Stopwatch
Latvala comes in 56s quicker than the delayed Ogier on the stage.
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Ogier has reached the finish with a time of 28m17.7s, puncture replacement included.
Crash
Another frontrunner in trouble: Sordo, who was third going into this stage, has lost two minutes by the first split.
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The pacesetter on the stage now is - incredibly - Evans! At the split before Ogier's problem, he was within 5s of the champion and 20s clear of the Latvala/Mikkelsen/Ostberg group. So throw in Ogier's delay and that looks like a big stage advantage for Wales' top man - if he can keep it going.
Kubica has begun the stage, but he's a few seconds off Latvala, and about 15s off what Ogier had done up to that point.
Relatively speaking, this isn't too costly for Ogier, he's got going again and at the next split is a minute down on Latvala. That huge lead he'd pulled in the opening miles is proving very useful.
The video feed in the service park cut to Ogier off the road and out of the car, but it seems he'll be able to continue - though this is an open goal for Kubica now.
Looks like he's changing a puncture, he's had an impact on the right rear and had to park to change it.
Crash
The world champion was pulling an absolutely massive lead on this stage, but he's crashed and is out of the car, as is co-driver Julien Ingrassia.
Crash
Ogier has gone off the stage!
It is looking so far like this is Ogier being mighty - Mikkelsen is quicker than Latvala at split two, but only by 2.8s so he too is nearly half a minute off the champion's pace.
Second fastest at split one is Evans, though even he is 10s down on Ogier. He finished the morning in a competitive sixth place.
Stopwatch
Not even halfway through the stage, and Latvala is a huge 27s off Ogier's pace. We need to see some more drivers through there to work out if it's Latvala in trouble or Ogier being extraordinary. It's the kind of conditions where vast gaps between drivers aren't impossible.
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But relative to Latvala and Ostberg, Mikkelsen's doing better than earlier. He was a fair way off the Citroen too earlier but is within four tenths of his countryman at split one now.
Mikkelsen is a touch slower still, 4s off Latvala's pace. He lost a full half-minute to Ogier on the opener this morning.
Stopwatch
Massively quick start for Ogier relative to Latvala, the champion is 12s quicker than his team-mate at split one. They were only 5s apart at the end of SS1.
Mikkelsen, third on the road but only ninth in the results at the moment, is one of the group of drivers who just had no confidence at all in this morning's conditions, and it's hard to see that changing in what they're facing this afternoon. See also: Tanak, Paddon. They're only 12th and 15th right now.
All three VWs now safely onto the stage, running with two minute gaps.
Hard to say yet if running further back will be a help or a hindrance. Reports suggest there's plenty of mud and mess awaiting the early runners, but will they clear that out of the way or drag yet more of it onto the road?
It's Friday, so we're in championship order, which means Ogier and Latvala first up, but joint leader Kubica way back in 11th on the road.
Green flag
Right, we ARE back in business, Ogier has started SS3.
Forget Sebastien Ogier or Kris Meeke, the most committed driver on the island of Corsica was the fella carting some of the Junior WRC cars from Corte down to Parc Ferme in Ajaccio. Once he got through the villages and the wiggly bits, he was on it. Maybe it was Meeke driving…
Abbring's co-driver Seb Marshall has been talking us through the stages, here's his view of what's coming up (hopefully) shortly:
SS3 Francardo-Sermano (22.63 miles)
This is probably the slowest stage of them all, just because it’s so narrow and so twisty, technical. You go up over a Col, which is nothing new, but unlike the other stages, there are a lot of hairpins in this one. There’s a sequence of six or seven in the space of a couple of kilometres, which makes this stage a little bit like Monte Carlo.
The final part of this stage is on a slightly wider road, following the side of a hill. I remember from the recce, this one is also really bumpy – I can tell that from my writing in my pacenote book!
SS3 Francardo-Sermano (22.63 miles)
This is probably the slowest stage of them all, just because it’s so narrow and so twisty, technical. You go up over a Col, which is nothing new, but unlike the other stages, there are a lot of hairpins in this one. There’s a sequence of six or seven in the space of a couple of kilometres, which makes this stage a little bit like Monte Carlo.
The final part of this stage is on a slightly wider road, following the side of a hill. I remember from the recce, this one is also really bumpy – I can tell that from my writing in my pacenote book!
This is the view of the end of stage three from the service park - it's in the clouds...
And for a reminder of everything that happened on SS1 to get us there... 
By: Matt Beer
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