WRC 2018: Slide season underway with Monte Carlo Rally as Sebastien Ogier leads

World champion Sébastien Ogier recovered from a spin on the opening stage at Rallye Monte-Carlo on Thursday night to secure a handy 17.3 sec lead heading into day two. A number of his rivals weren't quite so lucky as patches of black ice and snow shook up the early leaderboard.

The Frenchman, who was born close to the host town of Gap, used his local knowledge to master the asphalt stages that were smattered with patches of ice that could barely be seen in the darkness.

Despite a slow half spin in the 36.69km Thoard - Sisteron stage, Ogier was fastest through both of the opening speed tests in his M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Fiesta WRC.

Andreas Mikkelsen emerged from the darkness as the second fastest driver overall. The Norwegian managed to keep his Hyundai i20 pointing in the right direction across both opening stages but complained that it was hard to know how hard he could push – without doing anything he would later regret.

Hyundai team-mate Dani Sordo was a further 8.3sec behind as he made a positive start to the first rally of the 2018 WRC season. The Spaniard was 11.8sec ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing's fastest driver, Esapekka Lappi.

Team-mates Ott Tänak and Jari Matti Latvala completed the top six in their respective Yaris WRCs but both men had endured a fraught opening night of competition. Tänak dropped 37.3sec in the opening test when he spun and got stuck, while Latvala slid off the road twice in the same stage and dropped even more time.