Car 1. OGIER/INGRASSIA
Appeared to hit something and understeered off the road and into the trees 17km into the stage and is not able to continue. There are no spectators in the area.
MALCOLM WILSON, M-Sport team principal
“He had an incredible run this morning. We did not expect that. We don’t know what happened, whether something has broken. We have to hope that the car is not too badly damaged. It seems strange. It’s probably the roughest I have seen here in Portugal. It’s a difficult rally.”
Car 2. EVANS/BARRITT
“Not too bad. Very rough and we struggled a lot to get the hards to work. We lost a bit of time there.”
Car 3. SUNINEN/MARKKULA
“It was quite okay. I could have been three of four seconds faster but I would have been on the limit.”
Car 4. MIKKELSEN/JAEGER-SYNNEVAAG
“I was a clean stage. It was rougher than I expected. I have to look at the tyres. I tried to stay away from the rocks. It is not easy. There are so many of them.”
Car 5. NEUVILLE/GILSOUL
“The weekend is still very long. The conditions were much rougher than expected. I tried to take care about the car. Maybe we need to work a bit on the settings. I am on four soft (tyres) so I hope it is going to work.”
Car 6. PADDON/MARSHALL
“It‘s pretty hard on the car and the tyres. We have a couple of softs on the car. Maybe not ideal.”
Car 7. LATVALA/ANTTILA
Speaking about the suspension damage from the morning: “This is not the way I wanted this rally to start. I was a bit cautious on the first stage. The second stage I decided I had the feeling and started to push. Five kilometres into the stage, a left-right hander, there was a rock in the line. I went over the rock and the suspension broke immediately. Only the damper is broken We can carry on tomorrow.”
Car 8. TÄNÄK/JARVEOJA
Talking about the morning’s incident: “I am having a rest now until Sardinia. Something has broken in the engine. It needs some new parts.” Ott has now left for the airport.
Car 9. LAPPI/FERM
“A lot more grip to be honest. The road is getting cleaner as well.”
Car 10. MEEKE/NAGLE
“Everyone had a dolly mixture of the tyres, some hard and some soft. Sorry for Seb. It makes it interesting. I had four hard tyres.”
Car 11. BREEN/MARTIN
“I started to get back in the rhythm. Middle of the road. Maybe one or two sloppy mistakes, but it’s a lot better.”
Car 12. ØSTBERG/ERIKSEN
“It’s amazing. The car felt really good in there. The team have explained to me how the buttons are working and I was able to play with it in the stage. Thanks to them for that. I still remember how to drive.”
Car 16. SORDO/DEL BARRIO
“Tyres are destroyed (soft compound).”
Car 66. TANNERT/HEIGL
Confirmed that he lost a wheel in SS4 and retired