A demanding first day began with the first of two passes through the 18.15km of the Mortágua stage that bookended the day’s proceedings.
Championship leader Thierry Neuville began his opening day’s road-sweeping duties strongly with a time of 11min 31.6sec. That was sufficient to beat title rival Elfyn Evans by 2.7 seconds, Adrien Fourmaux by 4.5 and Ott Tänak by 0.9 seconds as the top surface of gravel gave way to a damper sandy surface on the stage.
A surprised Takamoto Katsuta ran 1.2 seconds quicker than the Belgian, who extended his overall lead to 0.8 seconds.
Oliver Solberg was the class of the early WRC2 runners on a stage where Georg Linnamaë stopped for two and a half minutes and Pepe López rolled near the finish and his new Ford Fiesta landed on its roof in the stage.
Four-minute intervals for Rally1 crews
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“The start felt good but the end didn’t feel so good. I started losing a bit the grip and the confidence and had some understeer as well. I was not enjoying the end so much but the beginning felt okay.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Not the best feeling. I am struggling with the front end in some parts. A lot more damp and slippery than we expected. Not that easy to get a lot of confidence in here.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“It was a really nice stage to drive to be fair. l I can gain in some places. The grip was quite good in some places. It was tricky. In the middle of the trees, you don’t see so much.”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“The conditions are really good, really damp and no loose. It is nice this way. I struggled myself. It is not a good time. We are losing – there is nothing positive.”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“I just felt the driving was okay. Having one hard on the car (front right) is not so easy. It is more damp this morning than we thought. The driving was quite okay.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“To be honest I felt quite a bad feeling in the car. I need to change a bit my style. It is a surprisingly okay start!”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“I was not really on it to be honest. I need to find a bit more confidence. The car is not so bad but I did not find the confidence enough to push through the trees.”
Car 13. MUNSTER/LOUKA
“First pass on pace notes is always a bit tricky. There is one corner when you want to go faster. It is difficult to get the rhythm in this one.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“Slippery. A little bit damp and really difficult stage to start the rally - narrow and really fast.”
Car 20. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
“Bad rhythm. We see some of the other guys behind. We don’t look at the times so much at the moment.
It is fast but it is super slippery and it is difficult to trust the pace notes.”
Car 21. ROUSSEL/DANAND
“I think it’s not bad. The feeling is quite good. A little cautious on the fast part. My driving was not perfect, for sure, but it is still long.”
Car 22. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
“I was struggling quite a lot with the car. There was the policeman in the road trying to slow us down.
Someone needs to tell them it is not their job.”
Car 23. LÓPEZ/VÁSQUEZ
Rolled 15.9km into the stage.
Car 24. PAJARI/MÄLKÖNEN
Late check in for the stage.
Car 25. GRYAZIN/ALEKSANDROV
“It feels okay. I try to experiment in some places with some driving. I am trying to get the pace without adversity by being more smooth. Some places we were doing some mistakes.”
Car 26. LINNAMÄE/MORGAN
Stopped 3.6km into the stage for over two and a half minutes and then restarted.