Elfyn Evans leads his home round of the FIA World Rally Championship after the opening four stages of Wales Rally GB.

The Welshman has pulled out a slim but significant 6.7 second advantage as he continues his bid for a maiden WRC victory. Championship contender Ott Tänak is second with Britain’s Kris Meeke third, 16 seconds adrift of the lead.

The penultimate round of the Championship kicked off last night with a short blast around the Tir Prince raceway, which was narrowly won by Championship leader Sébastien Ogier. Today, however, the crews headed a long way south of the Deeside base for two loops of three stages, all to be run with nothing more than a change of tyres and a regroup in Newtown

. Evans was on the pace from the outset and fastest time through the Myherin stage saw him take the lead and become the first British driver to head Rally GB since Colin McRae in 2001. He also won the final stage in the loop and tops the field as the crews arrived in Newtown. Tänak hasn’t been entirely comfortable in the sister Fiesta but the Estonian won the second stage and has moved from fourth last night to second.

Having struggled to find a good set-up during Thursday’s shakedown, Kris Meeke is now happy with the C3 WRC and has moved from 16th last night to third, just four-tenths of a second ahead of Ogier. The Frenchman, who is bidding to seal the title in Wales, led last night but has been cautious judging the different grip levels on the slippery stages. 

Jari-Matti Latvala is fifth and within striking distance of those ahead but he too has struggled to get into a good rhythm and find the right set-up. Andreas Mikkelsen heads Hyundai’s challenge in sixth, ahead of team-mate Thierry Neuville by 2.1 seconds.

The Belgian hasn’t had a great start of the event; he picked up a 10 second penalty last night for arriving late at the stage when the i20 WRC wouldn’t start, and then went off in the first test this morning. Struggling with understeer he changed the diff settings and was then happier with his performance.

Hyundai’s other two cars are eighth and ninth in the hands of Dani Sordo and Hayden Paddon with Juho Hänninen 10th for Toyota, the Finn really struggling with the conditions. Craig Breen had been running as high as sixth until picking up a puncture in the final stage of the loop and dropping over a minute.

In the FIA WRC 2 Championship category, provisional champion Pontus Tidemand leads by 7.5 seconds over Škoda team-mate Ole Christian Veiby, the Swede taking two stage wins to Veiby’s one. The two-wheel drive WRC 3 category is being led by Raphaël Astier in a Peugeot 208.

Home hero Elfyn Evans was a convincing winner of Thursday morning’s shakedown at Wales Rally GB.

The Welshman was fastest in the 3.32km Clocaenog speed test in a Ford Fiesta by 2.3sec from Dani Sordo. The Spaniard, driving a Hyundai i20, was a tenth clear of Ott Tänak and a tightly clustered group behind.

Evans benefited from a new range of DMACK tyres launched at the previous round in Spain, which were developed specifically for the cool, wet and muddy conditions found on the gravel forest roads.

“It’s looking good at the minute but there’s no more rain forecast so it’s going to be a case of how much it dries. If we have conditions like we had on shakedown that’s really positive for us, but if it dries a lot then that long loop on Saturday morning could be tough,” said Evans.

“This year there seems to be a lot of grip changes, which are quite prone to happening in GB anyway. But with so much rain, and especially with it drying a little bit now, I think we’ll see some areas which become quite high grip. Others where they have been logging will be very, very treacherous, so I think we will have a lot of mixed grip.”

Toyota Yaris pilot Jari-Matti Latvala was 0.1sec behind Tänak, with i20 duo Thierry Neuville and Haydon Paddon, back in action after missing the previous round in Spain, completing the top six.

Sébastien Ogier, who can clinch a fifth consecutive drivers’ world title this weekend, was seventh in another Fiesta and not ruling out a record fifth straight British victory.

“Beautiful roads, nice profile, very challenging conditions but fun to drive,” he said. “It would be fantastic to win the title here. That’s our plan and we’ll try our best, but if it’s too complicated we have to be clever as well.”

The leading times were: 

Sébastien Ogier won Thursday night’s short opening speed test at Wales Rally G to preserve an amazing five-year record.

Ogier has led every kilometre of the British round since the opening special stage of 2013. Victory at the 1.49km test at Tir Prince trotting track means he has now topped the GB leaderboard for 87 consecutive stages covering a remarkable 1258.64km!

The Frenchman, chasing a record fifth GB win and a fifth straight world title, completed the sweeping bends and jumps fastest in his Ford Fiesta by 0.4sec from Jari-Matti Latvala’s Toyota Yaris.

Thierry Neuville was third in a Hyundai i20, a tenth of a second further back, and a similar margin clear of Estonia’s Ott Tänak. A tying Andreas Mikkelsen and Elfyn Evans completed the top six, 1.1sec off Ogier’s lead pace.

Kris Meeke finished a lowly 15th, the winner of the previous round in Spain complaining his Citroën C3’s engine stalled mid-stage when he pulled the handbrake.

This penultimate round of the WRC season continues tomorrow when the action begins in earnest in the forests of mid-Wales. Drivers face two loops of the Myherin, Sweet Lamb and Hafren stages covering 119.32km, with just a mid-leg tyre change to break the action.

Turkey was confirmed in next season’s World Rally Championship calendar by the sport’s governing body.

The FIA’s WRC Commission rubber-stamped the country’s return after a seven-year absence following a successful dress rehearsal on Turkey’s Turquoise Coast last weekend.

M-Sport World Rally Team and Toyota Gazoo Racing sent representatives to the picturesque south-west holiday resort of Marmaris to observe the three-day dirt road rally, which was provisionally listed in the calendar a month ago.

They were joined by WRC Promoter management, WRC rally director Jarmo Mahonen and FIA safety delegate Michèle Mouton. All were impressed by the high standards of organisation, the quality of the special stages and the service park facilities.

“We wanted to observe a rally that is fit to take its place at the WRC’s top table,” said WRC Promoter managing director Oliver Ciesla. “The organising team at TOSFED delivered that and my congratulations go to them for securing a deserved place in the 2018 calendar.

“Next year’s fixture will be one of the most compact in the sport’s history. The special stages hug the coast with amazing backdrops overlooking the sea and WRC fans can look forward to stunning TV images.”

Large crowds watched the rally, which was won by Orhan Avcioğlu in a Skoda Fabia R5. Avcioğlu will compete in the WRC 2 support category at Dayinsure Wales Rally GB, this week’s penultimate round of the season.

Turkey’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Osman Aşkin Bak, attended Friday evening’s start ceremony in Marmaris and TOSFED president Serkan Yazici said it showed the importance attached to Turkey’s WRC return.

“We’ve worked incredibly hard to bring the WRC back to Turkey,” he said. “The Government has pledged its support and last weekend’s successful rally was the final piece of the jigsaw which confirmed our country’s return to the FIA World Rally Championship,” he said.

The final 2018 calendar is: