WRC Tour of Corsica
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Current order: 1 Ogier; 2 Latvala; 3 Ostberg; 4 Evans; 5 Meeke; 6 Mikkelsen; 7 Tanak. Out: Neuville.
Evans's time is a massive 23s faster than M-Sport team-mate Tanak, who's just reached the finish 39s off the pace and slowest of the drivers in so far.
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After a poor performance in Australia, Evans is back in business here and a promising fourth quickest.
Here are his thoughts on SS1: "It was alright, but extremely difficult. The start was very slippery, then in the middle there was a narrow section where there was bags of grip and you could push really hard. In the wide sections you were sliding and it didn't feel very efficient."
Here are his thoughts on SS1: "It was alright, but extremely difficult. The start was very slippery, then in the middle there was a narrow section where there was bags of grip and you could push really hard. In the wide sections you were sliding and it didn't feel very efficient."
Kubica still right on the lead pace at split two - 1.5s off Ogier, 0.4s behind Latvala. The top three are miles clear of the rest.
Good start from Evans, he's fourth so far, 16s behind Ogier and 2s behind Ostberg in third.
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Meeke's verdict on his start: "I said 'OK, I told myself to be clever in this rally, I don't want to be parked up after 500 metres, I need to do my rhythm'. It's going to be a long rally."
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Meeke reaches the finish, 27s behind Ogier and 4s ahead of Mikkelsen. That places him third for now.
Cars in so far: 1 Ogier; 2 Latvala +5.8s; 3 Ostberg +14.3s; 4 Mikkelsen +31.4s
We should have Neuville in next, but he crashed within a mile of the start, so there'll be a pause before Meeke and Evans arrive.
Back at split one - Kubica is third fastest, 1s off Latvala, who was fastest at that point.
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Ostberg completes the stage in third place, 14s behind leader Ogier.
"Towards the end it was getting completely wet," he says. "Big water in the road."
As for his physical state after his rib-breaking Australia recce crash, Ostberg says: "the adrenaline from driving is fixing all the pain."
"Towards the end it was getting completely wet," he says. "Big water in the road."
As for his physical state after his rib-breaking Australia recce crash, Ostberg says: "the adrenaline from driving is fixing all the pain."
One thing that isn't helping Mikkelsen is that he and Ogier both missed out on their pre-rally test.
DAVID EVANS explains why: Jari-Matti Latvala binned the Volkswagen test car on his second of two test days.
Ogier told AUTOSPORT: “For sure, it’s not the best, but when you see the conditions now, I think nobody tested for this kind of heavy rain. It’s less of a penalty for us than it might have been.”
DAVID EVANS explains why: Jari-Matti Latvala binned the Volkswagen test car on his second of two test days.
Ogier told AUTOSPORT: “For sure, it’s not the best, but when you see the conditions now, I think nobody tested for this kind of heavy rain. It’s less of a penalty for us than it might have been.”
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"I just really struggled to find any confidence at all in these conditions," says Mikkelsen. "It's difficult when I'm not in the Tarmac rhythm yet. I think this will be an event where a lot of things happen, and I need to build up step by step."
Mikkelsen is in, and he's already 31s off Ogier's pace. He is prone to making very cautious starts to rallies if he's not absolutely confident.
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"We lost 5.8s to Seb, but I'm happy because it was not an easy start," says Latvala. "The car was performing well but in the beginning I was very, very careful and I didn't take any risks. I wanted to get through the first stage, get into the rhythm, and then we go."
Further back, Evans and Ostberg are the men closest to Ogier and Latvala on the mid-stage splits. Kubica and his demon Pirellis are about to begin the stage.
Latvala is through, he's 5.8s down on Ogier at the finish.
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"It's not so easy. If someone pushes they can make a difference, but it's hard to find a good rhythm in there," says Ogier of the very wet stage.
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Ogier didn't register a time at the penultimate split, but he's safely reached the stage finish in a time of 19m44.0s.
Order at the first split now as more cars come through: 1 Latvala; 2 Ogier; 3 Ostberg; 4 Meeke; 5 Evans; 6 Mikkelsen; 7 Tanak
That early disaster is quite a contrast to Neuville's last visit here, when he claimed his maiden top-level victory when this rally was an Intercontinental Rally Challenge round: 
Crash
Hyundai says Neuville clipped a bridge and is trying to repair his suspension.
Mikkelsen has reached split two and is a full 13.4s slower than Ogier.
Kris Meeke and M-Sport duo Elfyn Evans and Ott Tanak are the latest to begin the stage. At split one, Evans is fourth quickest behind Latvala, Ogier and Ostberg, but ahead of Mikkelsen.
After setting the pace at split one, Latvala has lost a little time to Ogier on the next section. He's now 1.1s down on his world champion team-mate.
Crash
Reports from on the stage that Neuville is in trouble already - he's stopped to change a wheel on his Hyundai a mile onto the first stage.
Less trip-hop, more rallying... Ostberg is third-fastest at split one, 2.4s behind Latvala's pace, just under 3s quicker than Mikkelsen.
AUTOSPORT Live would argue that actually Jari-Matti, it's always time for Massive Attack. But preferably one of the first three albums.
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DAVID EVANS: Ahead of the event, Jari-Matti Latvala talked about his desire to win all three of the remaining rallies on this year’s WRC roster. Staring at the clouds, the Finn admitted he might have been a bit optimistic on this one.
“I think in this event, I have to rethink a little bit… In this event it’s going to be about having a clean event with no mistakes. This not the right time for the massive attack. We’ll try do clever rally and see what is the result at the end.”
“I think in this event, I have to rethink a little bit… In this event it’s going to be about having a clean event with no mistakes. This not the right time for the massive attack. We’ll try do clever rally and see what is the result at the end.”
The third Volkswagen isn't quite on that pace - Andreas Mikkelsen is 5.2s down on Latvala at that split.
Hyundai's Thierry Neuville and Citroen's Mads Ostberg are also on the stage.
Hyundai's Thierry Neuville and Citroen's Mads Ostberg are also on the stage.
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And at split one, Jari-Matti Latvala is the pacesetter, three tenths quicker than team-mate Ogier.
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There's a very unusual itinerary for this weekend's rally - just nine stages in total (three each day), but most of them between 20 and 30 miles in length. Plage du Liamone is the entire morning loop today, then we have a break until 1.39pm local time (12.39pm UK) when we resume with SS2 and SS3. It's a little like the shape of the Monte Carlo itineraries.
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Seb Marshall - co-driver to Hyundai's Kevin Abbring - is our guide to the stages today. Here are his thoughts on SS1:
SS1 Plage du Liamone – Sarrola-Carcopino (18.09 miles)This will be one of the few stages where we will recognise some places – albeit in reverse – from previous years. The first eight or nine kilometres is all uphill, quite twisty and normally very abrasive.After that we drop down to almost sea level on quite a nice flowing road. Then it’s a narrow section climbing back uphill through a couple of villages before we’re back on a wider road for the final five kilometres up over a Col to the finish.It’s the first and the last part of this stage which have been used before.
SS1 Plage du Liamone – Sarrola-Carcopino (18.09 miles)This will be one of the few stages where we will recognise some places – albeit in reverse – from previous years. The first eight or nine kilometres is all uphill, quite twisty and normally very abrasive.After that we drop down to almost sea level on quite a nice flowing road. Then it’s a narrow section climbing back uphill through a couple of villages before we’re back on a wider road for the final five kilometres up over a Col to the finish.It’s the first and the last part of this stage which have been used before.
Green flag
We're up and running, Sebastien Ogier has begun SS1.
DAVID EVANS: "It's with some trepidation that AUTOSPORT heads for the hills and Corte this morning.
"Wild overnight weather is forecast to continue into today. As the screengrab from Meteo France's website shows, the weather front – which was elevated from stormforce to hurricane overnight – sits over Ajaccio and Corte at lunchtime today.
"Given that the hurricane's still nameless, we're interested in what you'd call it? We'd go for Hurricane Seb."
"Wild overnight weather is forecast to continue into today. As the screengrab from Meteo France's website shows, the weather front – which was elevated from stormforce to hurricane overnight – sits over Ajaccio and Corte at lunchtime today.
"Given that the hurricane's still nameless, we're interested in what you'd call it? We'd go for Hurricane Seb."
All eyes on this man this morning - Robert Kubica was fastest on Thursday's shakedown.
Good morning and welcome to AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live, where this weekend our focus is on the World Rally Championship's Rally France - or as it is once again this year, the Tour of Corsica.
By: Matt Beer
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