With the action from the morning’s loop of three stages over, this afternoon’s repeat of the same three stages saw things settle down initially as crews sought to consolidate their positions and manage their tyres for the longest stage of the rally in the highest temperatures of the event so far.
Thierry Neuville was the driver on a charge, pushing hard to close the gap to leader Sebastien Ogier and he took the win on the first of the three stages, by just a second. However, Ogier pushed back on the very next stage, completing five seconds quicker and extending his overall lead to 23 seconds with just the long stage to go. He admitted that he was managing his tyres to make sure he could maintain his advantage to the end of the day.
However, he elected to back off the pace in the final test, with the win going again to Neuville, who closed the gap to 16.8 seconds as the crews turned towards Oporto and the sanctuary of the service park.
Behind the leaders, Hyundai team-mate to Neuville, Dani Sordo consistently set top five stage times to remain in a well-protected third place. However, further back, several drivers were using the opportunity to show what was possible.
Ogier’s M-Sport team-mate Ott Tanak was still smarting from the time he lost in the morning after hitting a bank and damaging his rear suspension. However, he put in a series of top three times to overhaul Craig Breen in the leading Citroen and take fourth place by the end of the penultimate day. This demoted Breen to fifth, just 2.8 seconds behind Tanak who in turn is 38.3 seconds behind Sordo in third.
In WRC2, it was Teemu Suninen who set the pace on the first two stages, claiming the class win and taking second place away from Pontus Tidemund after the second stage. Andreas Mikkelsen had enough of a lead that it was of no concern to him, though. However, there was a sting in the tail for both Suninen and Tidemund on the final stage, with both suffering a puncture and having to stop to change. Tidemund managed to change his wheel quicker and climbed back to second place, with a margin over Suninen of 19.1 seconds by the end of the day.
In WRC3, it was Nils Solans on a mission, in an effort to claw back the time he lost on Friday when he retired. He was fastest on four of the five stages the crews contested, as the last stage of the day was cancelled following a fire for another competitor ahead on the road. He held third for most of the day, behind Francisco Name in second and Jakub Brzezinski in the lead. However, Brzezinski suffered engine failure on the first stage of the afternoon and this promoted Name to first and Solans to second, 56.6 seconds behind.
Miguel Campos was again the leading Portuguese entrant on the rally, in 19th overall while Pedro Meireles won the national category of the rally, to take the lead of the national series.