In the Junior-World Rally Championship standings, Tom Kristensson and Henrik Appelskog led Roland Poom and Ken Järveoja by eight points in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively, with Jan Solans and Mauro Barreiro two points further behind in third in their own standings. In the Nations' standings, Sweden were first, eight points cleared of Estonia, with Spain three points further behind in third.[11]
Entry list
The following crews were entered into the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2 and WRC-2 Pro, the FIA R-GT Cup, the Junior World Rally Championship, and privateer entries not registered to score points in any championship. Ninety-six crews were registered to compete, including ten competing with World Rally Cars and eighteen in World Rally Championship-2. Two of these crews are nominate to score points in the WRC-2 Pro class. A further thirteen entries were received for the Junior World Rally Championship. The total of ninety-six crews made for the largest entry list for a World Rally Championship event since the 2015 edition of the Tour de Corse, when a total of 123 crews were registered to the event.[12]
The very first stage of the first pure tarmac rally of the season was dramatic. Kris Meeke suffered a puncture, while four-time winner Sébastien Loeb slid wide and damaged his suspension. Defending world champion Sébastien Ogier nosed his C3 into the bank and lost about ten seconds.[15] In the afternoon loop, a stage drama happened between Meeke and rally leader Elfyn Evans. Evans caught up to Meeke and got stuck behind him, which saw Evans set a stage time eleven seconds slower than Meeke's Toyota teammate Ott Tänak. Evans dropped behind Thierry Neuville, who was 5.3 seconds behind Tänak, on the leaderboard. Eventually, the stewards decided to credit Evans with the same time as the Estonian, which restored him to first with an unchanged advantage after Leg 1.[16]
Saturday appeared to be a disaster for the overnight leader Tänak, who also suffered a puncture and dropped down to sixth, which handled the lead back to Evans. But the Welshman's lead was short-lived as Neuville charged himself to the top spot in the final stage of the day with a-4.5-second lead.[17] Despite Evans astonishingly fought back, an extremely unfortunate right-front puncture happened to the Welshman at where six kilometers from the finish line, which dropped him straightly down to third, over twenty seconds behind defending world champion Sébastien Ogier. Following Evans' puncture, Neuville snatched his first victory of the season.[6]
Kalle Rovanperä led the WRC-2 Pro category as Łukasz Pieniążek suffered an early puncture.[18] However, Rovanperä was forced to retire from the event as he crashed his Fabia out in SS9. In SS12, Pieniążek also retired from the day as he went off the road.[19] But he managed to come back on the final day and took the win.[7]
In the WRC-2 category, local driver Eric Camilli dominated the day in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 as he won all six stages.[18] However, on Saturday, an early puncture dropped him behind Fabio Andolfi, who led the category after Yoann Bonato's retirement. Wore still, although he reduced the gap to just 5.4 seconds, he still forced to retire from the rally as his Polo was burnt out.[19] Eventually, Fabio Andolfi won the category after he overcame a transmission issue.[7]
Jan Solans started rally impressively, with over six seconds faster than any driver of the class in the first stage. However, a puncture cost him over two minutes and handled championship leader Tom Kristensson a comfortable lead.[21] In the end, Julius Tannert put the rally into his pocket after an intense fight with championship leader Kristensson.[8]
