Sébastien Ogier took full advantage of cruel mid-stage power steering failure for Ott Tänak to snatch the lead of the rally on the second pass through Amarante. The Estonian lost 45.6 seconds and slipped to third place, 2.1 seconds behind Kalle Rovanperä, who won his first stage of the weekend.
A flying Thierry Neuville continued his impressive afternoon pace and beat Takamoto Katsuta by 2.9 seconds. The Belgian knows the importance of road position for the final day and headed to Lousada in fourth after passing the Japanese in the overall classification. The gap between the two was a mere one second.
Elfyn Evans beat Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari by one-tenth of a second but the Finn retained a comfortable hold on sixth overall.
M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean continued to edge away from Grégoire Munster and headed to the final stage 29.7 seconds ahead of the Luxembourg man in the battle for eighth.
Oliver Solberg maintained a lead of 49.9 seconds in WRC2 from Gus Greensmith.
Lauri Joona (29) did not start SS16 after suffering problems midway through SS15. Federico Ensslin (84) stopped in SS15.
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Pretty okay but quite rocky in places. Nothing special. Not the speed we wanted to have but that’s the way it has been today.”
Car 1. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“We will see. We tried hard and I am very happy with the stage rhythm. We have to get that position for tomorrow (Katsuta).”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“Super easy, beautiful….,” said a gutted Estonian.
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“It was a crazy push all the time. I said to my engineer after the last one anything can happen in these conditions.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“Half-way through the soft tyres were not working. It wasn’t so easy.”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“Not too bad. We are still trying to drive the way I feel comfortable and not fight with him (Elfyn).”
Car 13. MUNSTER/LOUKA
“We are with two softs. I am happy with that.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“It was quite hard to understand the pace level because the previous stage was narrow and demanding. This one you push and fly through.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“It’s been an okay loop but it’s hard to translate the hard hits. You have to do a mind shift of not caring. I guess the guys behind are just full chat.”
Car 2. SALVI/CORONADO
“I thoight I was coming a little bit better but I came slower. I am enjoying the car a lot.”