STAGE FLASH: Rovanperä attacks; Tänak takes stage win

Kalle Rovanperä set the second quickest time on the first pass through the short Felgueiras stage and managed to nibble at Sébastien Ogier’s overall lead again. The difference was reduced to 15.4 seconds. Ott Tänak consolidated third place with the stage win.

Fourth-placed Thierry Neuville beat Takamoto Katsuta by 1.7 seconds and that enabled the Belgian to stay 14.5 seconds clear of the Japanese in the overall classification.

Elfyn Evans continued to chip away at Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari‘s grip on sixth overall. The Welshman reduced the gap to 7.1 seconds.

Josh McErlean had rectified his intercom issues and was the quickest of the first five Rally1 drivers. A time of 5min 57.2sec enabled the Irishman to extend his cushion over Grégoire Munster to 40.6 seconds in his quest for eighth place.

Adrien Fourmaux was the first driver through the stage and carded a time of 5min 57.4sec. The Frenchman beat Martinš Sesks by 4.9 seconds in the battle of two of the Rally1 drivers out of contention for a top 10 finish.

WRC leader Oliver Solberg headed to Fafe with a comfortable 54.7-second lead over stage winner Yohan Rossel. The Frenchman managed to overhaul Gus Greensmith to take second in WRC2.