Toudon / Saint-Antonin (13.6 miles) kicked off the first of 14 rounds on Thursday afternoon; the first of three stages on the opening leg.
The majority of drivers selected four studded Hankooks along with two winter tires, but Sébastien Ogier, Evans and Rally1 rookie Jon Armstrong took two super-softs instead of winters.
Super-softs proved the most effective choice on a wet SS1, but Evans maximized it to beat Toyota team-mate Ogier by 12s.
“It’s difficult on this condition to really know where the limit is,” said Ogier. “I was definitely on the very safe side, it’s going to be a long weekend.”
“I tried to go with a good rhythm definitely, just trying to be as smooth as possible,” Evans added. “Not easy with a crossed tire to get a good feeling, but it’s only the beginning – don’t get too excited yet!”
Solberg however was just as impressive; the Swede setting the second-fastest time despite running on a suboptimal tire package. The next quickest driver carrying winters was Adrien Fourmaux, 19.9s off the pace.
“I did my best with what I’ve got in this stage, but we are all optimizing the next one,” said the Hyundai driver. “I see that Elfyn did a really good stage with the crossed slicks, but let’s see along the loop.”
Shakedown winner Takamoto Katsuta settled into an early fifth, with Jon Armstrong completing the top six on his first ever stage in a Rally1 car.
Thierry Neuville was uncharacteristically 43.5s off the pace in his Hyundai, admitting to “struggling a lot” as he went ninth fastest.
“Zero confidence, zero,” he said. “I cannot trust the grip, it’s almost on/off. I just follow my feeling. We need to work to find more confidence, that’s for sure.
“We need to see over the whole loop – there was a high risk of punctures in here with a lot of loose stones, but it’ll be difficult to catch back that time.”
Grégoire Munster lamented his lack of a pre-event test but beat Neuville by 1.2s, with Sami Pajari stopping the clocks 1.0s behind the Belgian.
WRC returnee Hayden Paddon lost 49.0s on SS1, but wasn’t the slowest of the Rally1 cars. Josh McErlean was 0.4s behind, 15s down on new team-mate Armstrong.
Lancia’s WRC return got off to a mixed start, as Nikolay Gryazin stormed into the WRC2 lead (and seventh overall) in his Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale. But team-mate Yohan Rossel turned in too early on a narrow section and damaged his car, retiring on the stage.
