Overview

• Kalle Rovanperä ended Friday 7.1 seconds ahead of Adrien Fourmaux after the Hyundai driver lost time to a stage-seven puncture, with Ott Tänak just 0.5 seconds further back in third.
• Sébastien Ogier recovered from a stage-two puncture that cost roughly 37 seconds to finish the day fourth, 17.8 seconds off the podium fight.
• Elfyn Evans struggled opening the road and sits fifth at +21.1 seconds, while Thierry Neuville slipped to sixth after an overshoot at the end of stage seven following earlier set-up woes.
• The rough, unfamiliar gravel caused widespread damage: Takamoto Katsuta crashed after an earlier puncture, Sami Pajari fell from third to eighth after stopping to change a tyre, and Josh McErlean rose to seventh as others hit trouble.
• In WRC2, Yohan Rossel leads by 9.1 seconds from Nikolay Gryazin, with Paraguayan Diego Domínguez dropping to third after holding the early advantage.