Corsica WRC: Ogier takes early lead, Loeb crashes

Ogier led Loeb in the opening, partially wet 49.03km La Porta-Valle di Rostino stage, the duo separated by 9.7s with third fastest Ott Tanak a further eight seconds behind.

While the reigning champion was only quickest by two seconds in the subsequent 13.55km SS2, Loeb went off road and Ogier's lead was up to 21.1s.

Kris Meeke, who topped the pre-event shakedown, is Ogier's closest challenger, with Thierry Neuville and Tanak only two and four seconds behind the Citroen driver respectively.

Neuville, who is four points behind Ogier in the standings, was struggling throughout the Friday morning leg.

"I am not happy, the car isn't working as it should," said the Hyundai driver.

M-Sport's Elfyn Evans, whose co-driver this weekend is Petter Solberg's former partner Phil Mills due to Dan Barritt still recovering from his Rally Mexico crash, is fifth.

Dani Sordo leads Toyota duo Esapekka Lappi and Jari-Matti Latvala in sixth with Andreas Mikkelsen, who made mistakes in both stages, sitting ninth.

The top 10 is completed by asphalt specialist Bryan Bouffier, the third M-Sport driver of the event.

Standings after SS2:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time/Gap
1	Sebastien Ogier	M-Sport Ford	39m53.7s
2	Kris Meeke	Citroen	21.1s
3	Thierry Neuville	Hyundai	23.4s
4	Ott Tanak	Toyota	25.1s
5	Elfyn Evans	M-Sport Ford	37.7s
6	Dani Sordo	Hyundai	42.0s
7	Esapekka Lappi	Toyota	45.2s
8	Jari-Matti Latvala	Toyota	53.0s
9	Andreas Mikkelsen	Hyundai	53.2s
10	Bryan Bouffier	M-Sport Ford	54.4s