The last gravel stage of the first day of competition proved to be a decisive one, as many drivers predicted. While the morning loop of stages provided exceptional action and the unpredictability that this season has shown already, the afternoon loop of the same three stages was all about tyre management and the compromise between safety and speed on the far rougher roads.
It was Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon who set the pace on the first stage in the afternoon loop, repeating his feat from the morning. However, the big winner was Citroen’s Kris Meeke, who climbed overall the take the lead of the event ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala, the Finn taking things easy to manage his tyres for the longer stage later on.
The next stage saw things change once again though, as Meeke also deliberately backed off the pace to manage his tyres for the longest stage of the loop, the 27.5Km of Ponte de Lima. Thierry Neuville took his second stage win, just ahead of Elfyn Evans while Ott Tanak was third, despite bending something on his Fiesta’s suspension. As a result, he took the lead from Meeke as the crews headed for the last gravel test of the day.
However, this stage would prove as difficult as the drivers expected. The first to suffer was Latvala, second overall at the start. He lost his brakes and rolled, dropping to 13th as a result of damage to the car. Because of the damage, he also held Neuville up in the stage, who felt he lost some 20 seconds. Ott Tanak was far enough back not to suffer but was still carrying the damage from the previous stage, to claim third-fastest on the stage but maintain the overall lead.
Sebastien Ogier enjoyed a clean stage and with Dani Sordo benefitting from a win, the Spaniard finished the gravel stages in second, 3.6s behind Tanak with Ogier third, a further 2.6s behind.
Fourth overall was Craig Breen, who struggled in the afternoon and then suffered a broken damper while Elfyn Evans holds fifth, having lost grip in the long stage on the sandy sections.
However, the big losers were Kris Meeke and Hayden Paddon. Meeke suffered a puncture on the last gravel stage and after changing the wheel, briefly continued before suffering suspension damage and retiring. Hayden Paddon’s Hyundai cut out again with an electrical problem and did not restart for some ten minutes and although the New Zealander finished the stage, the time loss means he will be one of the first on the road on the second day.
But the action wasn’t over for the day. Two runs around the Braga street stage remained between the field and the overnight halt and in the tradition of the day, things looked like they might change around yet again. Ogier was fastest on the first, to close the gap to Sordo to less than a second with one more run to go. Ogier was again faster but by the end of the stage, only 0.2s quicker than Sordo, who maintains second place overnight behind Tanak with Ogier in third, 0.4s back.
Yet this may again change overnight though, since Thierry Neuville felt that he lost some 20 seconds held up behind Latvala’s car on the last gravel stage. Should the stewards of the event agree and give him that time back, once they have reviewed the on-board and helicopter TV footage, then it would place him in second place, just 2.7 seconds behind Tanak. Any decision is likely to be made overnight with news in the morning.
In WRC2, the overall positions remained static, with Andreas Mikkelsen maintaining a dominant lead in the class. He extended this by 15 seconds over the three gravel stages to finish the day with a 1m4.5s lead over Teemu Suninen. Third is Pontus Tidemund slipping back but closing the gap to 2.3 seconds with Eric Camilli in fourth, despite having lost his power steering in the final, longest gravel stage.
In WRC3, Jakub Brezezinski held an impressive overnight lead of more than two minutes over Raphael Astier with Enrico Brazzoli in third a further nine minutes back as they headed for Braga. The lead Portuguese driver, Miguel Campos, was 22nd overall while the highest classed Portuguese national championship driver is Pedro Meireles, in 26th as they approached the two final street stages. The crew of Jose Pedro Fontes and Ines Ponte, who crashed in the morning, were taken to hospital, where they are stable.