Solberg began the first full day of the season with a 44.2s advantage over Evans, which he duly extended beyond the minute-mark with another commanding stage win on SS4.
But a front-left puncture on the next test cost him all the time – plus an extra seven tenths – to Evans that he had gained on the previous one, settling his lead at 43.5s.
The Sweden then turned up the wick again on the morning’s final test, boosting himself a minute clear again with a third stage win of the weekend.
Although his margin was less emphatic, Solberg outpaced his rivals once more on the afternoon’s opener, with Evans instead needing to focus his attention on Ogier behind.
That became more imperative on SS8, when the nine-time world champion halved the gap between the two Toyotas with an emphatic 16.2s stage win of his own.
Solberg shipped 17.6s to Ogier but only 1.4s to Evans – keeping his lead at a healthy 1m05.6s – but was agitated by the fact he drove the stage in lower light conditions than Ogier near the head of the pack.
“I can see nothing compared to him,” Solberg argued. “It’s stupid to put the stage in this period into the dark, it should just be the same for everybody.”
Things were the same for everybody on the final stage, but Solberg elected to take it easy and protect the lead he had built. That lead stands at 1m08.4s after nine stages.
“I just wanted to get through this one, there’s so much happening,” Solberg said. “It was clean, I’m through, I extended my lead today so it’s been a fantastic day.”
Ogier set his second fastest time in a row, and third of the weekend, on SS9, clawing another 12.1s from Evans to close to just 6.5s overnight. At lunchtime, Ogier had been 35.7s behind.
“We tried to have a better afternoon,” admitted the reigning world champion. “This was the first loop of the rally where we could finally be faster – no slush on the road, the rest was just mad.”
Evans confessed: “”I obviously wasn’t brave enough, not going well enough in the ruts. Not ideal.”
Ogier made up half a minute on Evans over three stages
Hyundai’s lead car is over five minutes off the lead as both Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux suffered trouble in the afternoon.
Neuville had been just a minute behind Ogier but got stuck for three minutes on the final stage of the day, dropping behind his team-mate Fourmaux to fifth.
Explaining the incident, Neuville said: “I just hooked in the cut and [there was] no way to get out. There was a car in front of us who made the ditch, and when I had two wheels in the cut there was no way to get us out. Luckily the fans were there to get us out. It has been a bit of a struggle, but we are here.”
Fourmaux meanwhile was beset by electrical problems on his i20 N Rally1, which left him without a working handbrake.
“Since we left the service we had a lot of electronic issues with the car,” he said. “I have no handbrake so I have nothing to set me if I need to – every time I was scared if I understeer it was over. That was a tricky loop for us and for sure we are losing a lot of time, now we are in no man’s land.”
Fourmaux is 1m00.1s ahead of Neuville, but 3m50.3s down on Ogier’s third place – not helped by a 30s penalty for arriving to SS8 three minutes late following attempted repairs on the road section.
Neuville's rally was saved by fan power
M-Sport’s Jon Armstrong is sixth overall on his Rally1 and Monte Carlo debut, losing three minutes with a tire change in the afternoon. Making his top-flight WRC return after eight years away, Hayden Paddon is just 23.3s behind his former European Rally Championship rival.
Takamoto Katsuta had been ahead of Paddon – and would’ve passed Armstrong after his puncture – but lost his power-steering on the first stage of the afternoon.
That left him struggling to wrestle his Toyota through the stage, and co-driver Aaron Johnston frequently pulling the handbrake for him. The Japanese lost six minutes, and position, to Grégoire Munster, who also stopped to change a puncture. They’re 11th and 12th overall respectively.
Josh McErlean and Sami Pajari both restarted after retiring on Thursday evening, but while Pajari made it through McErlean retired for a second day – sliding off the road and getting stuck on SS9.
Léo Rossel is eighth overall in his Citroën and leads WRC2 by 39.6s over Eric Camilli, with Nikolay Gryazin third on the debut of Lancia’s Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale – just 1.7s behind Camilli’s Škoda.
