The drivers took to the 37.55km Amarante stage for the second time to round up Saturday’s racing. Tyre preservation was key, but with the competition being so close, so was the need to push. Hyundai Motorsport’s Thierry Neuville demonstrated that ethos perfectly. He managed his tyres but kept a good pace. He was the fastest over the stage with a time of 24.33.8s.
M-Sport’s Sebastien Ogier finished the stage stating that he’s perhaps looked after his tyres a bit too much. It was a thought that was confirmed by his stage time of 24.40s, some 6.2s off Neuville. However, all was not lost – the French driver still leads the rally by 16.8s.
Ott Tanak found his pace again, despite the day’s earlier failures. He was third quickest over the stage, 10.3s off the pace of Neuville.
In WRC2 the stage took its toll on the drivers. Skoda Motorsport’s Andreas Mikkelsen escapes the stage unscathed and was the fastest in WRC2, which he continues to lead. Sadly though, Teemu Suninen, Pontus Tidemand and Jean-Michel Raoux all had to stop and fix punctures in the latter part of the aggressive stage.