Ott Tänak continued to apply the pressure on Kalle Rovanperä in his quest for second place and set another fastest time on the second pass through a cleaning and rocky Paredes. He beat the Finn by 3.7 seconds and reduced the double World Champion’s grip on second to the same amount.
Sébastien Ogier maintained his overall lead with the second fastest time and increased his lead over Rovanperä to 16.5 seconds. A resigned Thierry Neuville consolidated fourth place.
Fifth-placed Takamoto Katsuta dropped 15 seconds to Elfyn Evans, although the Japanese admitted that we was not targeting Sunday points. His Toyota team-mate and championship leader Evans’s persistence was rewarded and the Welshman managed to overhaul Sami Pajari and snatch fifth place.
Grégoire Munster made some set-up changes to his Puma before the Fafe stage and noticed an immediate improvement. The Luxembourg driver beat M-Sport Ford team-mate Josh McErlean by 2.2 seconds.
Adrien Fourmaux was nearly 14 seconds faster than his earlier pass as the stage surface cleaned and he created a new and wider racing line for the following Rally1 cars.
Oliver Solberg headed to the penultimate stage with a 51.8-second WRC2 lead over Yohan Rossel.
Mattéo Chatillon (80) and Sylvain Tamisier (101) stopped in SS19. Eugen Caragui (71) retired in SS20. Arthur Pelamourgues (77) retired on the first run through Fafe.
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Let’s hope we didn’t take too much out of the tyres It was quite rough in here.”
Car 1. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“It is not possible. It is cleaning like hell. We were talking in the stage and I was showing Martijn where we were losing the time. I am making the lines for the guys behind.
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“Let’s see, so many rocks in this one, Difficult to balance between pushing and hitting the rocks.”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“All good for us.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“The road is much cleaner than this morning. It is hard baked now and tougher for the tyres but some loose rocks somewhere.”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“There is not much more I can do. We don’t have more grip to do anything else. This is the pace we can do. This is the limit of the grip.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“I decided not to take the Sunday points, so it’s okay.”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“Actually, not so bad. We had much the same feeling as the whole weekend. Trying to have a good show. I could be quicker in there but I am happy with the level we have now.”
Car 13. MUNSTER/LOUKA
“A decent stage. This morning wasn’t working as I wanted and we tried to do a reset before Fafe.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“It was very rough. I think we overheated the tyres. We don’t have much choice.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“I think it’s important that we start managing it a bit. Two more to go.”
Car 2. SALVI/CORONADO
A gentle touch of the banking but he was a minute faster than his opening run. “Going slowly, hitting a rock. Now getting a little bit more rhythm but enjoying a lot.”