A run through the slippery gravel of Paredes rounded off a dramatic morning’s action. Grégoire Munster’s alternator issue appeared to have rectified itself until it raised its ugly head again near the stage finish, as Adrien Fourmaux strengthened his grip on fifth by getting the better of Elfyn Evans.
Thierry Neuville managed to fend off Dani Sordo’s advances to retain third place at the midday break by just 3.6 seconds. A slow rear puncture dented Ott Tänak’s winning ambitions and the Estonian dropped 13.8 seconds to Sébastien Ogier driving carefully for over 8.5km to the stage finish. It meant the eight-time World Champion took a 13.6-second lead back to service at Exponor.
The WRC2 pendulum swung firmly into Greensmith’s favour when Rossel stopped to change a puncture and eventually dropped 1min 28.2sec to the Briton, although Greensmith was delayed in the dust once the C3 rejoined the stage. The time loss also pushed the Frenchman behind Irishman Joshua Mcerlean and his closest rival Jan Solans.
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“The last one was really tricky. The car is not in perfect shape. Zero grip in there. I just try to survive.
Plenty of surprises in there.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“The morning loop has been fine. Nothing special. We have just been working through some things. I thought this one was exceptionally slippery with quite a bit of loose on top.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“To be fair, Dani was not too far, but we lost too much time in Amarante. We want to stay close but we
Are fifth now and that is positive.”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
Slow rear-right puncture. “For 8.5km I was driving really slow to avoid taking the tyre off the rim. It was slowly coming down since the beginning.”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“It was a big push in this one again. We are giving everything we have.”
Car 13. MUNSTER/LOUKA
“It seems to have fixed itself by itself on the road section. But then we had it again near the finish. There is clearly something. We will check it at service.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“Very slippery. I do not like a lot this stage. The cleaning was also high. It will be demanding and difficult
(this afternoon).
Car 21. ROSSEL/DANAND
Clipped a rock on the side of the stage and stopped to change a puncture. “Big rock on the right corner.
It is like that.”
Car 22. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
“The entire stage I was in the dust - two kilometres of clean air. I think we will be getting a good chunk of time back.”
Car 28. SOLANS/SANJUAN
“It’s too tight all the day. This one was very difficult and the grip was very low. Sometimes you feel clean and sometimes you are over the limit. Let’s keep a good balance and get a good finish on the podium.”