Sébastien Ogier snatched an early lead at Italy’s ACI Rally Monza on Thursday afternoon with a narrow victory in the opening speed test. The Frenchman, bidding for a seventh FIA World Rally Championship crown, was fastest in the tricky and technical 4.33km Sottozero The Monza Legacy in a Toyota Yaris by 0.5sec from Thierry Neuville. The morning’s fog had lifted but conditions were still slippery in temperatures of only 3°C. Ogier, who started 14 points behind Evans, has a simple master plan. It was a disastrous start for Takamoto Katsuta who overshot a corner and, in trying to rejoin the stage, crashed into a wall just 2.3km after the start. Thierry Neuville was comfortably fastest in Thursday morning’s foggy shakedown for ACI Rally Monza.

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