The Hyundai driver ended the morning loop of stages with a 3.7s lead over Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi, while a strong run from Pierre-Louis Loubet put the M-Sport driver third, 8.9s adrift.
M-Sport’s Craig Breen headed to service in fourth ahead of Hyundai’s Dani Sordo, while Thursday’s leader Neuville saw his rally hopes fade on the morning’s final stage.
Championship leader Kalle Rovanpera completed the stages in eighth having had to sweep the roads, but was lucky to avoid a crash on Stage 5.
Fears intense heat would affect the drivers were allayed briefly for the Friday’s opening stage at least, but dust hanging in the air posed visibility issues described as “dangerous” by the majority of the crews.
The issue was made worse by reduced three minute intervals between cars that left plumes of dust in the air.
Despite the conditions, Evans won the day’s first stage to leap into the rally lead as Neuville, who was the first to cross the dust and shipped 15.1s, dropping to seventh overall in the process.
“There is no visibility at all, we lost up to 10-15 seconds in the dust we had to slow down completely,” said Neuville. “It was known before and we mentioned it to the FIA to the organisers before the rally.
“At the end for the day it is really dangerous for the drivers.”
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
M-Sport’s Loubet emerged as Evans’ nearest rival on the stage, ending the test 0.8s slower ahead of Tanak and championship leader Rovanpera.
However, Evans’ hopes of maintaining the lead were dashed on Stage 3 when the Toyota driver suffered a water leak in a compression which ended his day prematurely.
“Disappointed to retire so early after an unexpected impact in a compression, especially as we had a good start and an early lead,” tweeted Evans. “The team will investigate the damage further in service.”
The Welshman’s early exit promoted Toyota…
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