As on SS3, Pierre-Louis Loubet lost a little time in the second part of the special. The Corsican concedes 2″11 at the finish of SS1, i.e. the 4th fastest time among the Rally8s. He remains 1th overall.

Loubet: “It was not an easy step. We had a puncture alarm on the dashboard so I slowed down, but I think it was a correct step. “ 

It's not better for Esapekka Lappi, who concedes 16″1 on Ogier's time. For the moment, the Finn is making up the numbers…

10″4 behind for Dani Sordo on the finish line. The Spaniard is already almost a minute behind the overall leader.

Sordo: “I'm not fast enough. The car was floating a bit and at the end of the stage we lost grip because the tires were too hot. »

Ogier, again and again! The Frenchman is once again the fastest with the provisional best time of SS4 in 11'44″7, 2″1 better than Elfyn Evans! His overall lead rises to 11″3 ahead of the Welshman.

And on top of that, the Gapençais Toyota no longer has a hybrid, which explains its slightly slower start to the special! 

Ogier: " Not very well. We have a problem and we are driving hard to try to compensate for it. No hybrid. »

Even though he lost a little time in the 2nd part of the special, Takamoto Katsuta still set the 3rd fastest time, 3″9 behind Elfyn Evans.

Katsuta: “I feel good with the car. After the middle of the stage we started to get fog on the windshield, so maybe I wasn't totally focused. »

Sébastien Ogier is 3 tenths behind Evans in 2nd intermediate.

And it was beaten by Elfyn Evans, definitely in good shape for this first meeting of the season. The Toyota driver has just posted a time of 11'45″8, 3″8 better than Neuville's time.

Evans: “Seb is doing well at the moment. Everything's working well for us and we're trying not to do anything crazy, so we'll see. There is a long way to go. »

Thierry Neuville sets the new best time in 11'49″6, 2″9 better than Tänak. The Belgian moves up to provisional 3rd place overall.

Neuville: “We still have a little work to do, but I felt more comfortable in this race. It's a little more technical but as soon as it's fast and bumpy, the car is a little nervous. We could go faster but the risk would be too high at the moment. »

Little surprise: Takamoto Katsuta is ahead at the first intermediate! Is the Japanese finally free of his brake problems?

Ott Tänak beats Kalle Rovanperä's time at the finish line with a 2″2 lead over the Finn. The Estonian moves back ahead of the Finn in the general standings at the same time.

Tanak: “We are trying to learn and see how the car reacts to changes. Step by step, there are still a lot of things to do. »

Elfyn Evans is the fastest at the first intermediate, 1″5 ahead of Neuville.

The world champion sets the first reference time on this SS4 with a time of 11'54″7.

Rovanperä: " Pretty good. At first I didn't have much grip – I think there was salt on the road or something. The rest was pretty good. »

At the first intermediate, Thierry Neuville is the fastest ahead of Ott Tänak and Kalle Rovanperä.

Ott Tänak and Thierry Neuville are also on track. The two former teammates at Hyundai are currently fighting for 3rd place overall with Kalle Rovanperä: 2 tenths separate the three men.

Small correction regarding WRC2: it was ultimately Oliver Solberg who won on SS3. The Swede, who started much later than the first WRC2 cars, was the fastest ahead of Yohan Rossel.

Stage win on SS3! Great start to the day – fastest Rally2 car by 3.9s on the opening stage 💪

(ps we're 28th on the road today so results will come later than others!) pic.twitter.com/OORSDofUr2

— Oliver Solberg 🍩 (@OliverSolberg01) January 20, 2023

Road conditions are good, with generally dry weather and a few small wet sections in the first half of the route. The temperature at the finish line is -7°C.

On the WRC2 side, it is still Nikolay Gryazin who leads the debates… but Yohan Rossel remains in contact. The Frenchman set the best time of SS3 in the category.

The general classification in WRC2 before the start of SS4: