The first loop of three stages on Saturday morning looked as if the action would pick up exactly where it left off at the end of the second day. It began with Ott Tanak leading Dani Sordo and Sebastien Ogier in third, with Thierry Neuville just behind, waiting to capitalise on any problems.
Ogier set out his stall early, taking the win on the first of the day’s stages to overhaul Sordo and take second place. Neuville also closed the gap to just one second to his Spanish team-mate while Elfyn Evans climbed to fifth.
However, Tanak responded on the next stage, claiming an emphatic win to extend his advantage over Ogier to 6.3seconds, saying that it was necessary to push, even on the new stages. Neuville went faster than Sordo to pass him in the overall standings, climbing to third but with an extended margin between him and Ogier in second, of 16.3s.
Elfyn Evans suffered an early puncture and dropped time, allowing Craig Breen to climb to fifth by the end of the stage, despite smelling Evans’ shredding tyre and worrying it was one of his own.
However, it was the third and final stage of the first loop, the longest of the rally at 37.55Km, where things would change. Tanak again began at a storming pace but the split times soon revealed a problem, as he was slowing considerably at the mid-point of the stage. It transpired he had hit a bank and damaged the rear suspension, dropping almost one and a half minutes to Ogier and of course, losing the lead.
This means that as the crews head back to the service area at EXPONOR in Matosinhos, the Frenchman leads the event, 19.5 seconds ahead of Hyundai’s Neuville. Sordo is currently in third, 5.5 seconds back while Breen is in fourth, a further 21.2 seconds adrift. Tanak drops to fifth, 30.6s behind Breen and now, 1m16.8s off the lead.
In WRC2, Andreas Mikkelsen maintained a healthy lead, which he kept at around one minute throughout the morning. Behind him, Teemu Suninen and Pontus Tidemund were enjoying a close battle, with Suninen maintaining second place until the third stage. Here, Tidemund went through 15 seconds quicker, to take second place with a margin of 5.9 seconds as the crews head back to EXPONOR.