SS8: Tänak wins at Lousada and leads overnight

A 163km road section brought crews to the final test of the day – a televised 3.36km blast around the Lousada rallycross circuit. Crews tackled the special in pairs at five-minute intervals with the leading WRC2 crews going first.

Lappi and Rossel confirmed their overnight leads in WRC2 and WRC3, as Tänak set out to defend his 2.7-second lead over Evans in the general classification. He was paired against his Welsh rival in front of the Lousada crowd and the fastest time gave the Estonian a six-second overnight lead. 

Evans confirmed second place after Sordo erred on the side of caution to conserve what little rubber he had left on his tyres. Katsuta and Ogier rounded off the top five, with the World Champion finishing the day just 24 seconds off the lead.