Evans grabs Monte lead as Neuville stumbles on Friday morning

The alpine roads near Gap in the south-east of France provided a stern challenge as the FIA World Rally Championship’s opening round resumed in daylight. Conditions were a mixed bag, with icy patches on Saint-Maurice – Aubessagne making Hankook’s studded Winter i*Cept SR20 the favoured choice, while drying roads at La Bréole – Selonnet shifted the advantage to super-soft Ventus Z215s. A planned run through Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes - La Bâtie-Neuve was cancelled due to a medical incident involving a spectator.

Despite a cautious start on SS4, where Kalle Rovanperä set the pace, Evans’ time was enough for him to steal the lead from overnight pacesetter Neuville, outpacing the Belgian by 2.8sec.

However, it was Sébastien Ogier who emerged as Evans’ closest rival. Neuville’s hopes unravelled on the next stage when he misjudged a tight downhill hairpin, sliding wide and damaging the rear-left suspension of his Hyundai i20 N Rally1. He lost almost two minutes as he limped the car to the finish, with the same test also providing scares for Ogier and Ott Tänak.

“I think we paid the price for not having enough experience with the tyre in the dry,” Neuville reflected. “It felt stable, but I suddenly lost the brakes, saw the ditch, and the rear was gone.”

Ogier, a nine-time Rallye Monte-Carlo winner, was quicker than Evans on both stages but remains 1.5sec adrift after losing around 20sec to an off-road excursion on Thursday night. He survived another scare on SS6 when he almost slid into a ditch.

“It’s very difficult,” Evans admitted. “The sun is out, and in a lot of the places the gravel crew marked ‘icy’, but when you are in and out of the shade it is difficult to trust [the information]."

Adrien Fourmaux delivered an inspired performance, clinching his maiden stage win for Hyundai on SS6. The Frenchman’s speed propelled him from fifth to third overall and he trailed Evans by just 6.2sec at the day’s midpoint. M-Sport Ford’s Grégoire Munster also dazzled with back-to-back second-fastest times, climbing from seventh to fourth as his tyre strategy - a mix of super-softs, winter, and studded tyres - paid off handsomely.

The final stage of the loop also brought drama for Tänak when he damaged the rear of his Hyundai after sliding into the scenery. The Estonian dropped around 15sec but remains in contention, sitting just half a second back from Fourmaux in fifth overall.

Rovanperä was right on Tänak’s heels, only one-tenth of a second behind. Takamoto Katsuta, Sami Pajari, and a recovering Neuville completed the top nine as Nikolay Gryazin led the Rally2 field in 10th.