09h

The start of SS8 was pushed back to 9:15 a.m.

08h

In WRC 2, Suninen kept the lead, still having a lead of more than a minute. Kopecky took second place in the category ahead of Tempestini.

08h

The crews will compete on the 8km El Pont d'Armentera SS21,29 from 9:07 a.m.

08h

Kris Meeke (Citroën) took the scratch in SS7 of the Rally de Catalunya, the 24,4km of El Montmell, completing the course in 12'22''0 as the rain started to fall. The Northern Irishman was 3”6 ahead of his closest pursuer Dani Sordo (Hyundai). Juho Hänninen (Toyota) followed at four seconds ahead of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) at six seconds.

Ott Tänak and Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport) finished ten seconds behind the benchmark while Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) failed a dozen seconds ahead of Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) and Stéphane Lefebvre (Citroën).

Kris Meeke takes the lead in the RACC nine seconds ahead of Sébastien Ogier. Andreas Mikkelsen slips into third position, half a second behind the Championship leader. Dani Sordo moved up to fourth place, less than two seconds behind his new teammate, ahead of Ott Tänak and Thierry Neuville by a few seconds. Mads Ostberg (M-Sport) fell to seventh place and finds himself threatened by Juho Hänninen (Toyota). Stéphane Lefebvre narrowly retains ninth place against Esapekka Lappi.

08h

Mikkelsen slips to 3rd behind Meeke and Ogier. The Hyundai driver set the 7th time, 12″6 behind Meeke’s scratch and finds himself half a second behind Ogier in the general classification. “I suffered from understeer. »

08h

Ogier drops 10″7 against Meeke and finds himself 9s behind the Citroën driver in the general classification. “I didn’t have any great feelings. We had understeer, rain. It wasn't perfect but we'll try to do better in the next one. »

08h

Meeke improves Sordo's time by 3″6 with a time of 12'22″0. The Citroën driver could take the lead in the RACC. “We knew we were performing well on asphalt after the Tour de Corse. »

08h

Tänak finished 6″7 behind Sordo and slipped behind the Spaniard, 2″2 behind, only 2s ahead of Neuville. “We have to progress on this surface. I had quite a bit of understeer. It's raining hard now. »

08h

Ostberg drops around 20s against the reference. “I went off the road just after the start. This wasn't the best way to start. I no longer felt confident. » The Norwegian loses two places and finds himself 12s behind Neuville.

08h

Sordo improves the provisional scratch with a time of 12'25″6. The Spaniard is ahead of his teammate Neuville by 2″5 and now has a lead of almost 5 seconds in the general classification over the Belgian. “It started raining hard in the middle of the special. I had a little too much understeer but the car wasn't too bad. We still have to progress a little. »

08h

Neuville drops 2″1 to Hänninen while the Belgian is fighting with his teammate Sordo for 6th place. “I have a lot of understeer, it's almost undrivable. We were in difficulty in every corner. I can't go any faster. I can't be confident. »

08h

Hänninen took the provisional scratch in 12'26″0, 9″6 better than his teammate Lappi. The Toyota driver is 8th, almost 40 seconds ahead of Lefebvre.

08h

Lefebvre drops 1″4 to Lappi and maintains a little less than 2 seconds ahead of the Toyota driver in the fight for 9th place. “I am not satisfied with my driving. I tried to attack but it didn't work. »

08h

Lappi arrives with a missing rear window, a less annoying problem since the crews operate on asphalt. The Toyota driver improves the mark with a time of 12'35"6, 9"2 better than Evans. “I didn’t even realize we’d lost her. »

08h

Evans improved by almost a minute with a time of 12'44"8. “It was pretty good. » The Dmack driver is in 11th place behind Lappi.

08h

Al Qassimi sets a first time in 13'40″5. “I was careful because it was slippery. »

08h

Rain still threatens above the stages. The time is holding up for the moment while the drivers are in the special.

08h

The drivers set off two minutes apart. All crews took 5 hard tyres, with the exception of Neuville and Mikkelsen who had 4 hard and one soft.

08h

Latvala will not return to the road in the second stage following his retirement the day before. An impact against the underbody of the Toyota breaks the lubrication system.

08h

Al Qassimi leads the way on the 24,4km special. Here is the order of departures:

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