The 18.16km of the fast and flowing Mortágua (SS7) was a completely new addition to the 2021 edition of the Rally of Portugal, although neighbouring terrain was used before 2001.
Ogier was forced to sweep the surface and carded a time of 11min 42.7sec but Neuville slid wide on a fast right-hander, clouted the banking and came to rest with the car on its side. The Belgian managed to turn the car round and limped through the stage with the loss of around three and a half minutes. He was working on the damaged Hyundai on the road section after the special and was trying to hang on to ninth place.
“I had a pace note that was too fast,” said the Belgian. “When I saw the corner and the pace notes it did not work out. A tree stump put us on its side. We thought the car was not damaged. We are going to try and repair.”
Evans lost 37 seconds as a result of the dust from Neuville’s incident and would wait for a notional time from rally officials, but tyre wear cost both Tänak and Rovanperä crucial seconds. Fourmaux survived a spin, a rear right puncture, the loss of around 50 seconds and slipped behind Greensmith and into eighth.
Rally leader Sordo stalled and continued to suffer tyre wear in the stage. The vital seconds lost handed a 3.4-second advantage to Tänak heading to the final test of the day. Ogier was the beneficiary and the Frenchman actually claimed the stage win and moved up the rankings.
Gryazin was again fastest in WRC2 and reduced Lappis lead to 1.7 seconds.