SS13: Tänak secures 250th WRC stage win
The re-run of Cabeceiras de Basto was the 13th stage of the rally. Would it be unlucky 13 for one of the front-runners?
Fourmaux completed in 13min 58.8sec but an intermittent throttle issue came back to haunt Greensmith midway through and the Briton dropped 26.6 seconds to his team-mate and 47.1 to Rovanperä.
Katsuta was not prepared to let Ogier get too far away and the Japanese reduced the World Champion’s hold on fourth place to just four-tenths of a second with a storming run. Evans pipped Sordo by 0.9 seconds in the frantic battle for second place, as a seventh fastest stage time of the weekend enabled leader Tänak to pull a further 3.8 seconds clear of Evans. The feat also marked his 250thcareer WRC stage win.
The Finnish tussle for WRC2 supremacy again swung in Lappi’s favour and the Volkswagen Polo GTi driver gained 2.3 seconds on Suninen to lead by 16.2. Kajetanowicz continued to lead Rossel in WRC3 before the stage.