French legend Sébastien Loeb belied his lack of recent top-flight competition to draw first blood after an enthralling opening two demanding stages of Rally Turkey late on Friday afternoon.

The Hyundai driver, veteran of a record 79 WRC wins, hasn’t competed since Monte-Carlo in January, but defied the odds to open up a 1.2-second lead over team-mate Thierry Neuville at the start of the fifth round of a revised 2020 FIA World Rally Championship.

Six-time World Champion Sébastien Ogier used his road opening position to avoid the hanging dust that delayed his main rivals and reached the night halt in third, his determined push enabling him to earn a more favourable road position than title rivals Elfyn Evans and Ott Tänak.

Because of Covid-19 restrictions, a low-key start ceremony was staged without spectators at the Marmaris Atatürk Statue and then attention turned to the on-stage action.

It was of great importance for the championship protagonists to achieve a top result on the opening two stages. Their times would determine road positions for Saturday’s longest leg of the rally and could well have a major impact on the result of the event and the outcome of the shortened FIA World Rally Championship.

First up was the nearby Içmeler test (13.90km) and Gökçe (11.32km) followed to the north of Marmaris.

Ogier was the first driver into the opener and road sweeping duties failed to prevent the Frenchman from clocking a target time of 10min 18.2sec – he was eventually fifth. Evans pipped his team-mate by 1.2 seconds but Tänak ran even faster and topped the standings by four-tenths of a second.

A flying Neuville stormed through to beat his Estonian team-mate by 3.5 seconds to snatch the provisional lead, despite admitting to boxing clever in the tricky and slippery conditions. No rival could match the Belgian’s time of 10min 13.1sec and he took a lead of 3.3 seconds over the returning WRC legend Sébastien Loeb into the second special.

Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux headed the cautious Scandinavian duo of Pontus Tidemand and Eyvind Bryindsen in the FIA WRC2 category. Marco Bulacia topped the FIA WRC3 times from Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Sean Johnston after Spaniard Jan Solans dropped over one a half minutes to the Bolivian category leader.

Ogier swept the stage surface again in SS2 and stopped the clocks in 8min 34sec. The wind had dropped and dust was hanging between the pine trees in the setting sun, making conditions even more difficult for those following behind.

Evans admitting to losing vital seconds in the dust and slipped behind his team-mate and a disgruntled Tänak also dropped time and crucial places in the running order. Neuville also lost time to Ogier but maintained his provisional lead by just 0.1 seconds. But there was no stopping veteran Loeb and he stormed home to take the overnight advantage in stunning fashion by 1.2 seconds.

Fourmaux held on to lead FIA WRC2 comfortably by 23.0sec after Tidemand sustained a rear puncture near the finish of the stage and Brynildsen erred on the side of caution. Bulacia was in early control in FIA WRC3.

2020 Rally Turkey - Unofficial results after Section 1: