Adrien Fourmaux leads Rally Italy Sardinia after Friday morning ahead of Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville, as M-Sport endured a nightmare.
Fourmaux’s lead is 2.9 seconds with Sébastien Ogier completing the provisional podium, 8.1s shy of the lead.
Ogier had arrived at the end of the opening stage convinced that the road was getting quicker and his time would be beaten, but the eight-time champion took the early lead – albeit by just 0.8s over Neuville.
The tables turned on the very fast, and all-new, Telti – Calangianus – Berchidda test however as Ott Tänak blitzed to an impressive 3.3s stage win. He vaulted from fifth to second as Neuville took the lead, and Ogier fell to fifth.
The final stage of the loop was the longest of the rally, and had been identified as the biggest for the road cleaning effect. And so it proved, as Fourmaux – starting seventh on the road – timed his attack to perfect to blast to a 5.7s stage win over Takamoto Katsuta.
“I really tried to use the lines in front of me and I was really clean and tidy to not be too much in the loose, so it was paying off,” said Fourmaux. “I’m pleased with that.”
World champion Neuville was pleased too – opting for a soft-biased tire package which he feels paid off.
“That was the gamble,” he said. “I think we learned something for sure. I’m satisfied.”
Ogier splits the three Hyundais which are all inside the top-four, although Tänak revealed it was an “incredible struggle to be inside this car, no flow at all”.
He’s nine seconds off the lead, 0.9s behind Ogier but two seconds ahead of Sami Pajari who punctured very close to the end of SS3.
“I just hit some stone, usual scenario for a puncture – nothing so special,” Pajari explained. “Some right corner I was little too much in.”
Despite “missing the feeling” he desired, Katsuta is sixth overall ahead of Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans who are facing the worst of the road conditions. Evans is already 41.2s off the lead after just three stages.
But M-Sport was the big loser of Friday morning as privateer Jourdan Serderidis stands as the only one of the four Puma Rally1s still running. The other three all ran into strife on SS2.
Josh McErlean, who had been sixth after SS1, parked up on the stage after hitting a rock, as team-mate Mãrtiņš Sesks rolled out of contention in a big, fight-gear shunt.
Grégoire Munster meanwhile limped through the stage with broken rear-right suspension, but failed to make it to SS3 despite effort to bodge a fix on the road section.
In WRC2, Emil Lindholm leads the way by 10.8s over Martin Prokop, with Yohan Rossel occupying third.
