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An integer $n$ is said to be $y$-friable if its largest prime factor $P^{+}(n)$ is less than $y$. In this paper, it is shown that the $y$-friable integers less than $x$ have a weak exponent of distribution at least $3/5-{\it\varepsilon}$ when $(\log x)^{c}\leqslant x\leqslant x^{1/c}$ for some $c=c({\it\varepsilon})\geqslant 1$, that is to say, they are well distributed in the residue classes of a fixed integer $a$, on average over moduli ${\leqslant}x^{3/5-{\it\varepsilon}}$ for each fixed $a\neq 0$ and ${\it\varepsilon}>0$. We apply this to the estimation of the sum $\sum _{2\leqslant n\leqslant x,P^{+}(n)\leqslant y}{\it\tau}(n-1)$ when $(\log x)^{c}\leqslant y$. This follows and improves on previous work of Fouvry and Tenenbaum. Our proof combines the dispersion method of Linnik in the setting of Bombieri, Fouvry, Friedlander and Iwaniec with recent work of Harper on friable integers in arithmetic progressions.