Oliver Solberg leads Rally Chile after opening day

Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson concluded the opening day of Rally Chile with a 10.1-second lead over Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin. Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria held third place on the provisional podium to lead Hyundai's effort. Overnight rain created wet and muddy conditions for the morning's three stages, aiding Evans as the first driver on the road. Evans briefly took the overall rally lead after winning SS2, but Solberg responded to steadily build a double-digit margin over his Welsh Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate.

The first five stages produced five different stage winners, with Thierry Neuville, Sami Pajari, and Sebastien Ogier each setting a scratch time, while Solberg took stage six. Behind Fourmaux, Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais finished fourth, 1.6 seconds ahead of Pajari and Marko Salminen in fifth. Neuville ended the day in sixth, reporting a lack of confidence in his i20 N's handling. M-Sport Ford teammates Jon Armstrong and Shane Byrne finished seventh, just six-tenths of a second ahead of Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy in eighth. Esapekka Lappi placed ninth, struggling to explain his lack of pace, while Takamoto Katsuta retired on stage one after his GR Yaris struck a bank and slid down an embankment.

In the WRC2 category, Nikolay Gryazin won the first two stages in his Lancia Ypsilon HF to take the lead ahead of WRC2 championship leader Robert Virves, who won stage five. Yohan Rossel claimed victories in stages three and four. Meanwhile, stage six was red-flagged following an incident involving Alejandro Cachon.