Day one: 78.40 miles; 9 stages

Weather: rain/overcast 16-23 celsius

■ Andreas Mikkelsen hits the front with a stunning time through the event’s opening gravel test. The Norwegian leads all the way through the morning before he’s slowed in SS6 by gearbox issues –a problem which rules him out a stage later.

■ Mikkelsen’s Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville is never far behind the Norwegian, but it’s Sebastien Ogier who will rocket from fifth to first after making the most of a soaking wet and muddy re-run Tula test. Neuville is second to Seb on Friday night but will drop more valuable time when he loses the rear wing in the last stage of the day.

■ Ott Tanak is the leading Toyota for much of the day, until the Estonian damages the radiator on his Yaris after a heavy landing on the final Friday test. Fourth-placed Teemu Suninen should be the chief beneficiary, but he too fails to finish Monte Baranta after putting his Ford Fiesta WRC off the road.

■ Timo Suninen’s isn’t the only damaged factory Fiesta on Friday. Elfyn Evans has overcooked it into a second-stage corner, hitting the rock face with some lock on breaks the steering arm. Evans fits a replacement steering arm in the stage at a cost of 13 minutes.

■ Tanak’s team-mates Jari-matti Latvala and Esapekka Lappi find themselves third and fourth after a pair of largely unremarkable days – just 4.4s separate the Finns ahead of the weekend.

■ Unremarkable would be a good way of describing Citroen’s day; Mads Ostberg is in fifth place with Craig Breen seventh (Hayden Paddon provides the meat in the French sandwich). End of day one: 1 Ogier/ Ingrassia 1h35m56.9s; 2 Neuville/ Gilsoul +18.9s; 3 Latvala/anttila +37.2s; 4 Lappi/ Ferm +41.6s; 5 Ostberg/ Eriksen +58.3s; 6 Paddon/ Marshall +1m01.5s.