Josh McErlean’s accident in the mud at Lousada on Saturday afternoon ensured that the final day’s road-opening duties fell to the Irishman. First on Super Sunday’s agenda was the opening pass through the rain-soaked, sand-based Vieira do Minho stage. His road cleaning was rewarded with a time of 14min 35.4sec. Martinš Sesks beat his Ford team-mate by 4.5 seconds.
Takamoto Katsuta stormed through in 14min 19.3sec and trimmed another 6.5 seconds off Adrien Fourmaux’s hold on fifth place. The difference was down to just five seconds. Elfyn Evans set the new benchmark of 14min 12sec to maintain fifth place.
Oliver Solberg completed the opener with a slow front-left puncture but it didn’t affect his performance unduly. The Swede managed to reduce a troubled Sami Pajari’s hold on third overall to 12.1 seconds.
Sébastien Ogier started the stage in the onset of a heavy rain shower and it slowed the Frenchman. He ceded 7.6 seconds to Thierry Neuville with his overall lead trimmed to 14.3 seconds.
Teemu Suninen set out to defend a 0.9-second overnight lead in WRC2 and the Finn managed to beat Jan Solans by 10.6 seconds to increase his lead to 11.5. Nikolay Gryazin dropped 14.6 seconds to the flying Finn and Roope Korhonen was 20.2 slower! That opened the door for Andreas Mikkelsen to close in on Korhonen and he reduced the gap to 8.5 seconds.
Jon Armstrong (95) did not restart after his accident on Saturday afternoon. He was joined on the list of retirements by Diogo Marújo (52), Alejandro Cachón (31), Eliott Delecour (40) and Diogo Salvi (56).
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“The surface was very mixed. We got some rain and then nothing.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Very inconsistent with the grip. It wasn’t the best.”
Car 99. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
Slow front-left puncture. “It’s typical of my luck. I try my best. I was really focused and really motivated. At a fast left into a fast right. I didn’t think about it much and then it was 1.8 (bar), 1.7, 1.6..”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“We need to check if we have an issue to see what we can do. It’s not good.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“I felt like I had a good stage. It’s like that.”
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
“We had a lot of rain and couldn’t do much. Try to win the rally is the easy strategy, like always.”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“I don’t know if it is the rain or the conditions. We were fighting through the stage, honestly, I stalled the engine four or five time under braking. I lost the trust and I couldn’t break late any more. First to bring it home, that’s the target.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“To be honest it is changing a lot in there. I thought it was more consistent. It’s wet in some places. A big thanks to all the team for getting everything sorted. I think they were up until three in the morning.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“It looked like he (Josh) hit a few banks. It’s tricky to navigate but if it stops raining the road will get faster and faster. Now you have this slimy bit and it’s very tricky.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“The stage was good but some of the corners are really slippery. The problem is to calculate where there is low grip. It was nice. One corner you have a lot of grip and the next you have nothing. It’s not easy.”
Car 20. KORHONEN/VIINIKKA
“Quite muddy. It was not an easy one. I tried my best.”
Car 27. SUNINEN/HUSSI
“Quite tricky. I think the cars behind may be catching if they are pushing. There were some sections at the beginning that were not good for me.”
Car 36. SOLANS/SAN JUAN
“It’s very difficult in some places. It is very easy to go off the road. We try to make that balance to stay on the road.”