Kris Meeke has won three of the four stages on the opening day of the Tour de Corse to pull out a 10.3 second advantage in the Citroën C3 WRC. The Briton has not put a foot wrong and heads Sébastien Ogier and third-placed Thierry Neuville after a warm and dry day of competition on the mountain roads in the southwest of the island.

For the third consecutive year, the route for France’s round of the FIA World Rally Championship tours the Mediterranean island and after last night’s opening ceremony in Ajaccio, today’s route took in two loops of two identical stages close to the island’s capital before heading back north to the rally base in Bastia. Adding to the challenge, there was no mid-leg service for the crews, putting high importance on car preservation.

Meeke took control from the outset, winning the first two stages to pull out an 8.9 second lead as the crews headed into the Porticcio regroup at lunchtime. Not even a nose bleed on the start line of the opening stage put the Northern Irishman off his stride. This afternoon, Ogier fought back, winning the first of the repeated stages, but another fastest time for Meeke then cemented his position at the head of the overnight leaderboard. Ogier, who claimed a maiden victory on the Tour de Corse last year, has similarly run well, although struggled over some of the bumpier sections of road. But, as the day has progressed, the Frenchman’s feeling with the Fiesta WRC has got better and better. Neuville suffered with understeer this morning and knew he could push harder, but this afternoon the Belgian admitted to being too close to the limit everywhere. He is 15.5 seconds adrift of Ogier.

Craig Breen, who has adopted a totally different style of driving on asphalt, started the day sixth and has steadily improved and eventually overhauled Dani Sordo for fourth overnight by just 1.4 seconds. The Spaniard lacked some confidence earlier but was happy overall with the first day of competition on the first pure asphalt round of the 2017 Championship. Jari-Matti Latvala heads Toyota’s challenge. The Finn is contesting his 170th world rally and easing himself into the sealed surface groove in the all-new Yaris WRC. His team-mate Juho Hänninen fared less well however and was forced to retire after the first stage. The Finn clouted a bridge, damaging the suspension and a wheel and ending any hopes of a clean run so far this season. Hayden Paddon’s experience on asphalt is limited and the Kiwi driver admits to needing more time on this surface; he is nearly 20 seconds adrift of Latvala and in seventh tonight. Stéphane Lefebvre has had a clean run to eighth in the third C3 WRC. Elfyn Evans’ push for success was curtailed early on; in the second stage the Fiesta WRC had a hydraulic problem and, with no service throughout the day, the Welshman has nursed the car through three stages, haemorrhaging time. He has lost nearly seven minutes. Ott Tänak made a promising start, fourth this morning, but the Estonian then went off the road on the first of the afternoon’s repeated stages and while the car was undamaged, he simply couldn’t get back on the road.

Ninth overall is held by former Volkswagen WRC driver Andreas Mikkelsen. The Norwegian is competing in the FIA WRC 2 Championship for Škoda and tops the category standings in R5 machinery. Having won each of the day’s stages, despite a spin in the last one, Mikkelsen heads Teemu Suninen by over a minute with Frenchman Yohan Rossel third. Formula One, World Endurance, Formula E and WRC driver Stéphane Sarrazin, who is not registered in WRC 2, is 10th overall, sandwiching Mikkelsen and Suninen.

The FIA WRC 3 Championship is being led by Peugeot R2 driver Raphaël Astier, who won this two-wheel drive category in Monte-Carlo and, within that series, Nil Solans is heading the Junior WRC Championship drivers. This is the first round of the one-make series for young drivers looking to make a mark on the world stage and they are all driving identically-prepared Ford Fiesta R2 machinery.

Rallye de France-Tour de Corse – Provisional results after Section 2