A repeat run through Amarante - the longest stage of the WRC season so far – followed in warmer afternoon temperatures. Ott Tänak had to run a large part of the stage with a large crack in the windscreen in his eyeline and the Estonian dropped 10.2 seconds to the stage-opening Takamoto Katsuta.
Thierry Neuville had the bit between his teeth and the Belgian found a strong rhythm that enabled him to overhaul Esapekka Lappi and regain third place by just 2.7 seconds. It was the fourth time that the Hyundai duo had swapped places on the rally so far. Second-placed Dani Sordo was faster than both his team-mates and edged 12.8 seconds clear of Neuville and the Spaniard was quickest by seven-tenths of a second, his pace preventing Kalle Rovanperä from winning his fifth stage of the day.
Gus Greensmith shaved another 5.7 seconds off Oliver Solberg’s WRC2 advantage, despite the Briton having a concern about a technical issue with the Toksport Škoda. A delaminating tyre for Marco Bulacia enabled Teemu Suninen to snatch fifth in the category behind the WRC2 stage-winning Andreas Mikkelsen and Yohan Rossel.
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“I don’t know. It’s strange. I’m trying all the time. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. We are not comfortable in the car. I did what I could to be honest.”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“It was okay, really rough stage. At the beginning I was driving normally to have a good feeling and then I was a bit slower. Hopefully the tyres are okay and we can have a good loop.”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
A rock cracked the windscreen in the driver’s eyeline during the stage. “Its frustrating for myself. It’s a difficult weekend. You cannot be where you want to be. There is nothing we can do about it at the
moment.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“I need to push to be in the fight. We decide we need to push but we don’t need to make a mistake.”
Car 4. LAPPI/FERM
“All good. It’s a lot of bedrock and maybe more than some of us expected but it is much better than yesterday.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
Four seconds quicker on his second pass. “It’s rough and a lot of rocks on the ground and some are sharp. Not so bad actually and we survive.”
Car 20. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
“How we are here I have no idea. We have a problem. We have to go….”
Car 21. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
“I had to put the soft tyres on so not very good. I drive too clean, too smart.”
Car 23. SUNINEN/MARKKULA
“It was super rough and I was trying to survive.”
Car 24. MIKKELSEN/ERIKSEN
“I think I tried to manage the tyres and we maybe made a small difference at the end because of that.”
Car 26. ROSSEL/DUNAND
“It’s completely strange situation for me but it is like that. We need to do no mistakes but it is impossible to be fast at the moment.”
Car 35. BULACIA/VALLEJO
Lost fifth place in WRC2 to Teemu Suninen after a front-left puncture. “At the beginning when I started to feel something wrong, it was a slow puncture. I felt like the tyres were starting to overheat, it got worse and the tyre delaminated and we lost a lot.”