Volkswagen Motorsport driver Sebastien Ogier once again increased his lead over team-mate Jari-Matti Latavala along with taking the stage win. Ogier now leads the rally by 14.1s overall over Latvala.
Ogier finished the stage saying that he can only make it around 10k before the having to fight for energy due to his illness.
Jari-Matti Latvala finished the stage 4.0s behind his team-mate. He later said the car was fast in the mid-sections of the stage but the tyres were on their limit.
Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team driver, Mikko Hirvonen remains in third position overall with a gap of 37.2s between the rally leader. He expressed how fast he thought the Polo WRC cars were on this event, saying it would be hard to keep up the pace.
Mads Ostberg once again finished in fourth position, further proving he could have been a strong contender were it not for yesterday’s roll.
Car 2, Hirvonen/Lehtinen
“It was okay, but now we are going to lose time. Those Volkswagens are really fast on this stage. Not good. We have to try to push now.”
Car 4, Ostberg/Andersson
“This one was very, very loose and not possible to push. I tried, but it’d just go off. It’s very tough. I backed off in places, it would have been stupid to push. It’s much more tricky than yesterday, a lot more loose gravel so it’s difficult.”
Car 5, Novikov/Minor
“I’m not so happy, the times are not here. Generally everything is fine. I don’t think there is a problem with anything, the time just isn’t there.”
Car 6, Al-Attyah/Bernacchini
“Very, very tough but okay, The car is working very well. The Michelin tyres are working very well. We just try to keep our position. We’ll try to improve this afternoon because we’re now racing Mikkelsen.”
Car 7, Latvala/Anttila
“It was a pretty good pace to be honest. The mid-section was very, very fast so I tried to push. The tyres felt quite bad on this stage. The tyres are very on the limit.”
Car 8, Ogier/Ingrassia
“It’s been a good morning. It’s been quite tough, every stage after 10k I really have to fight. I feel like I’m driving with a problem, it’s not the car, it’s my energy.”
Car 9, Mikkelsen/Markkula
“I drove full turbo on this! There were just so many up crests, over crest, up crests! There was so much information! I felt like a virgin in that stage! Terrible driving on my part.”
Car 10, Al Qassimi/Martin
“Very tough. I’m way off my pace from yesterday. Tough conditions, no confidence. I was tired in the first stage. I was backing off a little and I couldn’t find the right pace.”
Car 12, Kosciuszko/Szczepaniak
“Somewhere around the beginning I hit something with the rear left wheel. I thought it was going to be a puncture, but thankfully not. It’s sliding like hell, it’s really difficult to drive on those tyres, they’re overheating. We’re on the soft compound.”
Car 15, Kuipers/Buysmans
“It’s going well, but it’s so difficult. This stage is so slippery, I had some small mistakes. You need to be so careful. This afternoon is going to be tough. It’s a combination of fast, rough, technical stages. It’s so slippery in place. In one second you’re off.”
Car 21, Prokop/Ernst
“I tried to improve with the stage and get the confidence, But this stage is crazy slippy. I thought at one point I had a puncture, but I was just overheating the tyres. It’s going to get more difficult.”
Car 31, Lappi/Ferm
“Everything is okay, perfect. Just driving safely and trying to finish. Maybe right now I’m driving at 70% speed.”
Car 32, Wiegand/Christian
“The first stage was bad luck for us because the intercom was not working for is. The stage last was bad because we had the wrong tyre. This stage was better because we have the right (hard) tyre now. It’s really, really slippery. It felt like we had a puncture at some times.”
Car 48, Al-Kuwari/Duffy
“All okay, but I’m slowing a bit because the nothing to gain and I don’t want to hit or crash because that would be very stupid. It’s very difficult, we can see cars everywhere. It’s good today, we’re just looking at tomorrow.”
Car 74, Kubica/Baran
“We did the first 15k of the first stage on the paddle. Since then it’s on the stick and it’s very, very hard to up-shift. Also we have no handbrake which is very difficult on the tight sections. We’ll hopefully fix it for this afternoon.”
Car 78, Bresolin/Pollet
“I made a mistake in the last stage and turned in the road. It’s very difficult for me as it’s my first time in Portugal. The road is very strange, but I get to try it.”
Car 79, Barrable/Loudon
“Very happy, we got into a very good rhythm this morning, We knew it’d be tricky this morning. The tyres are starting to go off, they’re a little be soft. The rhythm is totally different to yesterday, it’s tight and twisty and you don’t get a good run.”
Car 81, Moura/Costa
“We did a good day yesterday, but today the stages are more rough. It’s getting difficult to fight with the S2000 cars now. When it gets bumpy this car is almost destroyed. We had a puncture in the first stage too which slowed us down for 14k.”
Car 82, Protasov/Sikk
“Everything is okay, but not so good for today, The stage is a little bit damaging. I drove not so fast, so the car is okay.”
Car 83, Magalhães/Magalhães
“Enjoying it a lot. It was a shame yesterday because of an electric problem. But today we are pushing hard.”
Car 84, Meireles/Castro
“The morning was okay, much better than yesterday, the rhythm is better. I’m improving my driving. It’s about the kilometres as it’s my second rally with the car. The stages are very difficult. I think I’m satisfies with this car and my driving.”