a controversy that arose in previous rallies where crews deliberately checked in late, incurring time penalties but securing a preferable road position, thereby improving their chances of scoring bonus points. Elfyn Evans' co-driver Daniel Barritt was replaced by Phil Mills as Barritt did not recover from an accident in Rally Mexico in time for the Tour de Corse. Citroën's new R5 variant of the C3 WRC made its competitive début in the WRC-2 class during the rally. Thursday Thursday in Corsica only requires crews to complete a Shakedown. Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle won the stage, over two seconds faster than the Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen. Last year winner Thierry Neuville finished third, half a second faster than teammate Dani Sordo. Current championship leader Sébastien Ogier was fifth. From sixth to tenth were Elfyn Evans, Sébastien Loeb, Ott Tänak, Jari-Matti Latvala and Esapekka Lappi respectively. Friday Defending world champion Sébastien Ogier was absolutely flying in Friday. He set three fastest stage times out of four and built a lead of over half a minute over the last year winner Thierry Neuville, who was struggling with the brakes. Nine-time world champion Sébastien Loeb, competing in the second of three guest appearances, carried too much pace into a left corner 400 metres after the start and dropped into a deep ditch. The rest stage won by Esapekka Lappi, who finished the day in fifth place, just less than one second ahead of Elfyn Evans and Dani Sordo. Kris Meeke, who suffered intermittent intercom problems in his C3, was third, 5.5 seconds ahead of Ott Tänak, who also had handling problems at the rear of his Toyota Yaris. Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala lacked confidence in his Toyota Yaris in eighth. Another 4.2 seconds behind was Andreas Mikkelsen. The Norwegian lost much time with a spin at the first corner in the opening stage and a brief trip into a ditch this morning, issues compounded by understeer when he tried to have a push this afternoon. Local man Bryan Bouffier completed the leaderboard in a Fiesta. Saturday Championship leader Sébastien Ogier ended the day with a 44.5 seconds advantage over Thierry Neuville. Ott Tänak snatching position by a tenth of a second from the Belgium in the final Novella test, as Kris Meeke crashed his Citroën C3 into retirement after mishearing a pace note. Esapekka Lappi was another 10.3 seconds behind in fourth place. Dani Sordo