Afternoon action resumed with a second pass through Felgueiras. Grégoire Munster resumed road-sweeping duties but there were no changes in the upper reaches of the leader board with Ott Tänak trimming Ogier’s lead to 10.4 seconds with his second quickest time of the weekend.
Gus Greensmith got out of line after 3.5km and ran the front of the Škoda into the banking, beaching the front of the car off the road and making it impossible for the shell-shocked Briton to regain the track.
His woes played into Josh Mcerlean’s hands and the Irishman snatched the WRC2 lead by 8.4 seconds from a hard-pushing Jan Solans. Nikolay Gryazin (seventh overall) is the highest-placed of the WRC2 runners but decided not to register for points in Portugal! Yohan Rossel is still in touching distance of the leaders after setting the quickest WRC2 time.
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“Dani will try (to pass). We have been many times in the fight with him. I had a clean run through. I don’t feel so well today. It is not working so well.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“All okay. It’s quite a bit more rutted than I expected.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“I think everything is possible in Portugal. It is only Saturday afternoon. It is difficult to find the balance.
The road conditions are different. It is rutted. Sometimes big ruts and sometimes nothing.”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“Let’s see. The road conditions are actually really perfect, nice ruts. I would like to do much more but I am lacking for that.”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“You will see. Not much to say. Not a big push for me in that one.”
Car 13. MUNSTER/LOUKA
“It’s still a bit of cleaning, not ideal lines. For, sure, it is better than the morning. This one is quite rutted.
If you had the confidence and can hold the line, you could have a good pace. It will get faster.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“It was okay and better than the first pass - more lines.”
Car 21. ROSSEL/DANAND
“The line of WRC guys is not exactly the same and we lose a lot of traction at the end of the corner.
“This race is completely crazy.” (when he learned of Greensmith’s incident).
Car 22. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
Ran offline and crashed into the banking 3.5km into the stage and beached the front of the Škoda.
Car 25. GRYAZIN/ALEKSANDROV
“Gus is stuck in one corner on some sand. We just do our job and do work. The ruts are quite hard. I am surprised.”
Car 28. SOLANS/SANJUAN
“Too many thoughts that’s a problem on the stage; Now, here, coming to the end, I almost spun and saved it. It was a tough stage. Many things were coming into my mind. (when he saw Gus) It put me off.
So many things can happen. We cannot forget about Yohan. He will push to try to catch us. He will push to try and fight for the win.”
Car 38. MCERLEAN/FULTON
“It’s a bit crazy. It’s unfortunate for Gus, he’s having a really good rally. It was a simple downhill and he probably lost his braking. There’s a big afternoon ahead. It’s been a big battle all weekend. We have to keep on pushing.”