World Rally Championship points leader Thierry Neuville made an almost perfect start in Croatia to lead Toyota’s Elfyn Evans after Friday morning’s asphalt stages.
The Hyundai driver set the pace by winning three of the four stages to open up an 8.6s lead over nearest title rival Evans. Eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier coped admirably as stage conditions worsened after every pass to end the loop in third, 21.5s adrift. Hyundai's Ott Tanak held fourth despite struggling with his i20 N. M-Sport's Adrien Fourmaux completed the top five ahead of Takamoto Katsuta , Andreas Mikkelsen and Gregoire Munster .
Tanak came through the test third fastest despite admitting his i20 N 'was not really working' and was 'difficult to drive'. Fourmaux dropped 4.2s but was 0.6s quicker than Ogier, who ran wide while battling the increasingly dirty road conditions. The top eight were completed by Katsuta, Munster and Mikkelsen, the latter having continued to battle a nervous car. By stage three, Neuville restored and extended his lead over Evans to 8.
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