Stage Flash: Góis Stage win Fourmaux; Tänak maintains lead

An impressive Adrien Fourmaux claimed the fastest time of 9min 07.1sec in the fourth Góis stage and stormed into second position, just 2.1 seconds behind rally leader Ott Tänak.

A resurgent eight-time World Champion Sébastien Ogier was second quickest and moved into fourth behind Kalle Rovanperä. Takamoto Katsuta climbed to fifth at the expense of Elfyn Evans.

Stage-opener Evans was in damage limitation mode this morning and the Welshman safely negotiated the special in 9min 16.0sec, although the drier and dustier special played against the World Championship leader. He dropped 3.1 seconds to Rovanperä and 8.4 seconds to Ogier as the cleaning effect on the stage surface became more of a factor.

Oliver Solberg was the man to beat in WRC2 and the Swede started the stage 8.3 seconds ahead of Gus Greensmith with series leader Yohan Rossel in third place. Nikolay Gryazin was running as second quickest of the Rally2 drivers but is not scoring WRC2 points in Portugal.

German FIA Junior WRC runner Claire Schönbern rolled and retired in SS2 although the early initiative was with Australia’s Taylor Gill.