Five short stages were planned for Sunday morning and action got underway with the first of two passes through the 9.18km of Felgueiras.
Neuville was handed road-sweeping duties but the main attention was on the battle between Sordo and Evans for the win, especially after Hyundai’s team principal Andrea Adamo had come out and publicly authorised the Spaniard to ‘push’ for the outright victory. The gap at the start of the morning was 10.7 seconds.
Fourmaux was the only one of the opening four drivers to post a time that would have any relevance on the leader board and he carded a 6min 14sec run in his quest to stay in front of Greensmith in the battle for fifth place. The Frenchman beat the cautious Briton by half a second to hold a 6.9 advantage over his Ford colleague.
Ogier surged 11.4 seconds clear of Toyota team-mate Katsuta in the tussle for third place and Sordo carded a 6min 14.7sec in his quest to overhaul Evans. But the Welshman was in devastating form and a scintillating time of 6min 05.1sec gave the Welshman a lead of 20.3 seconds. He beat Sordo by 9.6 seconds!
“It was a very big push,” said Evans. “It was quite tricky in there and not enough grip. I am quite happy with that…happy enough!”
Lappi benefited from a spin for Suninen to extend his WRC2 advantage to 1min 11.8sec, although Østberg beat both Finns on the stage.