The first pass through the legendary Fafe stage, its iconic Pedra Sentada jump into the flying finish and its thousands of hard-core rally fans was next on the cards after continuous heavy morning rain.
Josh McErlean set the benchmark over the slippery gravel with a cautious run of 7min 19.8sec. Martinš Sesks was 0.8 seconds slower than his team-mate after an early scare in deteriorating weather and stage conditions at the start of the stage. Dani Sordo was 5.8 seconds slower than McErlean’s gauntlet time.
Takamoto Katsuta was 10.3 seconds adrift and the Japanese lost 1.4 seconds to Adrien Fourmaux in the tussle for sixth place. The Frenchman increased his advantage to 6.4.
Elfyn Evans began his Super Sunday challenge by winning SS20 and the Welshman continued to push on in slightly better conditions. He still dropped 2.7 seconds to McErlean.
Rain had abated for Oliver Solberg but Evans was still able to trim the Swede’s hold on fourth to just 4.6 seconds. Sami Pajari only dropped a tenth of a second to Solberg and retained a 12-second cushion in third overall.
Thierry Neuville ceded 1.6 seconds to Pajari but, more importantly, he dropped three seconds to leader Sébastien Ogier. The lead grew to 17.3 seconds. McErlean looked to have claimed his second career stage win and the first for an Irishman since the late Craig Breen’s last success in 2023 until WRC2 contender Robert Virves ran faster in more favourable conditions running further down the field.
Teemu Suninen increased his WRC2 cushion over a cautious Jan Solans to 18.4 seconds. Nikolay Gryazin is feeling unwell but still manage to beat Suninen by a tenth of a second. Roope Korhonen went on a charge to beat his nearest rivals and managed to increase his cushion over Andreas Mikkelsen by 0.4 seconds.
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“It’s crazy slippery. Not confident and many surprises. It’s hard to judge it. Sometimes grip and sometimes no grip.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Not so much rain but the road is saturated wet and the mud is quite thick. We had a scare on the second corner - up on the bank. Not easy!”
Car 99. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
“It’s a tricky weekend so far. It was very slippery in there and I didn’t want to push too hard.”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“It felt horrible again. I don’t want to complain. I still have some issue in the background. It is affecting me a lot.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“I did some changes on the set-up before the stage. It is still not as I would like. Conditions are quite interesting to drive. But we continue.”
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
“It’s been not really enjoyable in that one. Happy to get through. Eyes on the road. Hopefully we can finish with some better weather!”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“It’s getting really slippery. It’s like clay everywhere. I was struggling to keep it on the road. I was a bit more safe than the previous one but the conditions are also more slippery.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“It’s quite exciting at the best of times. Over the mountains when you are spinning the wheels in fifth gear, ‘spicy’ is the word. Yesterday, was probably the first place in the world to hit a wall. It was a big surprise for everyone. I was just a passenger It’s in the past now.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“This one was not enjoyable. The first corner was a bit too optimistic and then I took it quite steady. I could have done better.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“It’s very slippery and I did it (the stage) many times. It’s my first time it was that slippery. The tyres did not help a lot. We are in the mud all the time. It was quite tricky in some places.”
Car 20. KORHONEN/VIINIKKA
“Really tricky stage. All weekend we struggle a lot with muddy condition like this. Not the best run, but quite good.”
Car 25. GRYAZIN/ALEKSANDROV
Continuing with an illness. “I am just going through…”
Car 27. SUNINEN/HUSSI
“It was tricky. Lots of downhill and braking and it was difficult to know where to brake.”
Car 29. MIKKELSEN/LISTERUD
“You can always do more but the risk is so high. The most important is to keep the pressure and, in these conditions, anything can happen.”
Car 36. SOLANS/SAN JUAN
“I think that I am a smart guy and I don’t make a mistake with that extra push to go off the road. That’s the best way we have now.”