With up to 12 points at stake for the winner of the day’s four stages and the Wolf Power Stage, there was plenty to play for at the start of the final leg. Both Sébastien Ogier and Ott Tänak had favourable road positions for the opening 19.91km of the demanding Cabeceiras de Basto stage, but the Frenchman had the crucial advantage of an 11.9-second lead.
With leader Nikolay Gryazin not registered for WRC2 points in Portugal, Jan Solans took a lead of eight seconds over Josh Mcerlean into the final morning.
Yohan Rossel’s anticipated charge suffered a mighty set-back when he was hit with a one-minute penalty for leaving Parc Fermé early this morning. This came on the back of another penalty that the Frenchman had been given on Saturday evening for driving in SS13 without safety harnesses correctly fastened after a wheel change.
Defending World Champion Kalle Rovanperä and Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta were given road-sweeping duties on a stage that started and finished in foggy conditions with better visibility at higher altitude.
Dani Sordo was clearly struggling in the foggy conditions, lost over half a minute and the Spaniard relinquished fourth place to Adrien Fourmaux. Thierry Neuville admitted that it was tricky to find a fast pace in the foggy conditions and set the third quickest time but Ogier excelled to earn the stage win and extend his lead over Tänak to 18.1 seconds.
Mcerlean reduced Solans’s grip on the WRC2 lead to just three seconds.
Three-minute intervals this morning for Rally1 cars.
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“I had a good stage but, in the middle, I got into the fog and lost a bit of speed. I watched the fog on the live (stream) but the fog is moving a lot. When I came it was foggy in the fast. It is not easy.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Bit of a surprise. We will take it. After the rhythm we had yesterday, I didn’t expect it to be so good.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“I tried to do a good stage but I lost a lot of time at the end. I could not hear Alex and had no pace notes. It is just an issue with the connection. With the weather we have got, I think I should have gone to pick some mushrooms to be honest!”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
When asked about Ogier’s pace. “Nothing to do any more, I finished the stage already…. !”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“First of all, thanks to the team for making the car 100%. It is not easy conditions, a lot of fog at the start of the stage. Sometimes fog and sometimes not. Quite a technical stage. Last part is quite difficult and it’s not easy being the first car, really.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“It’s quite okay. Not nice.” No hybrid on the stage.
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“Sounds good (stage time)…. I was watching the live. I was thinking it (fog) would get better but it actually got worse for us. More fog than the first cars.”
Car 13. MUNSTER/LOUKA
“It’s so narrow you don’t have much direct line. It’s trying not to get too close to the edge, sometimes the lines were close to hitting the mountain, the barriers. They are going for it. The last section was too narrow and I didn’t want to make a mistake.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“Just very foggy and I was really bad. The car was understeer a lot, too soft. It was all difficult to drive like this. I just didn’t see the road. I could not drive.”
Car 21. ROSSEL/DANAND
“It’s not perfect weekend. It’s like that. On the last rally I said we are a team and that doesn’t change after one week. I think we are very strong now. We need to keep focus. It’s sad for the championship. It’s a good rally, we have a good car and a good team behind me. Stay smile..”
Car 25. GRYAZIN/ALEKSANDROV
“It feels good on the first part but, when the slow corners came, it was sideways too much.”
Car 28. SOLANS/SANJUAN
“I don’t know what he (Mcerlean) is doing to be honest. I have a strange noise. It is a bit disturbing. We tried to push and we need to keep going.”
Car 38. MCERLEAN/FULTON
“Race on. It was okay. I actually thought we struggled in places. It was a tricky stage. It is difficult, the high speeds into the slow speeds sections. There’s no reference for the braking points.”