Day one: 64.29 miles; seven stages

Weather: sunny/rain 14-28 celsius ■ Rally Finland winner Ott Tanak has picked up where he left off in Jyvaskyla – at the front. He is leading after Thursday night’s superspecial in St. Wendel, but only by a tenth of a second from… Kalle Rovanpera. Skoda’s 17-year-old Finn makes the most of his Fabia R5’s narrower girth to come as close as possible to his first scratch time. ■ Tanak enjoys a near perfect day, fastest on five of Friday’s six stages to build a 12-second advantage over M-sport Ford Fiesta man Sebastien Ogier. ■ Happy to be ahead of his chief title rival, Hyundai man Thierry Neuville, Ogier is frustrated that he can’t match Tanak’s pace in the Toyota. ■ First into the stages, championship leader Neuville can’t find a rhythm and then suffers a scare on the day’s penultimate test when his gearbox starts to leak oil. He tops it up for the last stage and brings the car home third. ■ Ogier’s M-sport team-mate Elfyn Evans heads up an almighty scrap for fourth place. Just 5s separates the Welshman from Jari-matti Latvala (Toyota), Dani Sordo (Hyundai) and Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) in fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. ■ Craig Breen heads up Citroen’s challenge in eighth. Running a softer car in search of confidence costs the Irishman dearly as his C3 WRC lacks precision through the vineyards. Worse still, he’s the first driver caught in a second-stage downpour.

End of day one:

1 Tanak/jarveoja 59m22.6s; 2 Ogier/ Ingrassia +12.3s; 3 Neuville/ Gilsoul +27.4s; 4 Evans/ Barritt +37.8s; 5 Latvala/anttila +38.8s; 6 Sordo/ Del Barrio +42.7s.