Thierry Neuville started the final Wolf Power Stage at Fafe trying to defend a 14.8-second advantage over Oliver Solberg. He safely negotiated the stage in second position to take his 23rd career WRC win and a first of the season for the Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT. His winning margin was 16.3 seconds.
Jan Solans blotted his copybook on the previous stage and the former WRC2 leader was given road-opening duties as another rain shower started in the Fafe area. The Spaniard secured fifth (points for fourth) in the category, despite a puncture in this stage.
Andreas Mikkelsen was not able to catch Roope Korhonen and the Norwegian finished fourth in WRC2 (points for third). Nikolay Gryazin was feeling under the weather but the Lancia man was the quickest of the first five WRC2 drivers to claim second place, although he was not registered for Drivers’ Championship points in Portugal.
Korhonen picked dup points for second and Teemu Suninen earned his eighth WRC2 win on his gravel return and collected valuable championship points. His winning margin was 24.9 seconds.
Josh McErlean stopped to change a front-right puncture and dropped over two minutes on the way to a hard-earned finish. Team-mate Martinš Sesks posted the first realistic Rally1 target time of 7min 13.084sec.
Dani Sordo ran 3.6 seconds quicker than the Latvian but he was 8.9 seconds slower than Sami Pajari. Sébastien Ogier attacked the Wolf Power Stage and his pace was rewarded with a time 5.09 seconds quicker than Pajari.
Takamoto Katsuta completed the special in darkening clouds 0.185 seconds slower than Ogier, but Adrien Fourmaux managed to beat the seven-time event winner by 3.325 seconds to claim the bragging rights and the eventual Wolf Power Stage win by 0.576 seconds.
It was raining when Elfyn Evans hit the road but the Welshman survived touching a banking to settle into the stage classification just under two seconds behind Fourmaux in third overall. It marked his 49th career podium finish.
Oliver Solberg earned the Super Sunday bragging rights and confirmed second overall with a final stage time of 6min 54.249sec.
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“I started well but I had so many moments with the rear, especially with the braking and we had heavy rain in the middle of the stage. It was very tough.”
Car 99. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
“It started raining so I had to have the vent open and it was taking in water.”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
Stopped to change a puncture 3.8km into the stage. “For me, as long as I can see it was loose stones in the line. We hit it and I got a puncture. There was nothing I could do.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“I did try to change a bit my driving style and force it a bit more. I was trying to get the rotation and it working. The beginning was quite dry and then it was wet and then we had the rain for two minutes. There were a lot of things going on.”
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
Forced to stop and change a flat tyre. “There were some rocks in the line. There were rocks everywhere in the beginning...”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“Nothing is done yet but so far well done with the job and now we have to finish. We know how not to do it. It was continously raining for me from the beginning to the end and heavy rain in the middle. I drove very well and I should be very pleased with it.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“It’s a lot of mud in places, just sweeping! It’s one of those days wherever you are running, it matters.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“A lot of mud and sand over the windscreen. It was just very rutted in places.”
Car 36. SOLANS/SAN JUAN
Off the road in the stage and lost over two and a half minutes.