Evans, steering a GR Yaris Rally1 car for Toyota Gazoo
Racing, showcased dominance in Thursday’s night-time stages when he secured a
15.1secovernight lead. However, on the slippery mountain roads west of Gap, he
couldn't replicate the same performance.
A cautious run in the opener from Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes to
La Bâtie-Neuve reduced Evans' advantage to 5.3sec. His lead would have
diminished further in SS4 if Thierry Neuville hadn't spun his Hyundai i20 N on
a patch of ice, losing 10sec.
But Ogier, a nine-time winner here, delivered a
stellar performance in the final stage from La Bréole to Selonnet, going
fastest by 11.2sec. That was enough for the Frenchman to overtake Neuville and
secure second overall whilst also narrowing Evans' lead to just 10.7sec before
the repeated afternoon loop.
“It’s tricky,” admitted Evans. “[Conditions have] improved a
bit, but it's so bad where it is [icy] and then full grip where it's not. For
sure you can go faster, but it's not easy.”
An icy section in SS3 caught
out several frontrunners, with Ott Tänak, Takamoto Katsuta and Grégoire
Munster needing spectator assistance to get out of a ditch.
Tänak lost around 40sec but, with Thursday's throttle
mapping issues resolved, he maintained fourth overall and trailed leader Evans
by 1min 1.0sec. M-Sport Ford Puma hotshot Adrien Fourmaux, who posted the
third-best time for SS5, was only 3.3sec behind.
Drama at the front allowed Andreas Mikkelsen to climb to
sixth, though he lagged over two minutes behind the leader, citing a lack of
confidence in his Hyundai.
“My gravel crew is going [through the stages] very early,
and the information is not there or different,” explained Mikkelsen. “I stopped
trusting the words and I’m just using my eyes.”
Munster ended the morning in seventh while Katsuta,
following his ditch incident, plummeted down the leaderboard after losing more
than five minutes. WRC2 hopefuls Pepe López, Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel
completed the top 10.