Tänak opened the road at the start of the second loop and beat his morning’s run through Vieira do Minho by 4.6 seconds. Light rain began to fall after three or four cars had entered the special and Greensmith clipped a banking and punctured a rear-right tyre.
Breen was the early pace-setter until Katsuta went quicker and pulled another six-tenths of a second clear of Sordo in the battle for third. Rovanperä and Evans were again the class of the field and the Finn managed to snatch the stage win and reduce the Welshman’s advantage to 16.5 seconds. Suninen extended his WRC2 lead to 18 seconds.
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“Nothing too crazy. I push like normal but only when there is a road without any rocks. It is still a long
way to Elfyn. I’m not only trying to catch him. We also need to keep this place.”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“The last five or six kilometres was raining and it’s getting more and more heavy. The road is not too
bad but the visibility is getting bad.”
Car 42. BREEN/NAGLE
“Honestly, I made some changes to the car. I am still not 100% happy, I still feel we have work to do,
some changes on the chassis and the dampers. Still more work to do.”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
4.6 seconds faster than his morning’s run. “It’s a bit more loose in the line. For the front wheels it’s quite
okay, for the rear wheels it’s nothing. It was okay...”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“I try to get the position (third). Just after the start a big rain came. It was very tricky. The tarmac section
was very slippery.”
Car 44. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
Clipped something and the rear-right tyre came off the rim. He dropped 11.8 seconds to Breen. “I went
through a left, I thought it was a soft bank and there was something hidden in the bank.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Difficult, it was quite slippery. I felt the stage went okay. That was a pretty good run from him (Kalle)..”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“It wasn’t too bad but the beginning was difficult to drive.”
Car 7. LOUBET/LANDAIS
“It was okay, I tried to do a good one. The grip was higher than I expected in some places and others
was not good enough.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“It is a little bit wet at the end. I was over driving a little in the stage.”
Car 21. SUNINEN/MARKKULA
“I was pushing now. I had fresh tyres and that helps a lot. Rally is still long and we have to continue.”
Car 26. ROSSEL/SARREAUD
“The drive is not bad. The conditions were good. The plan is to do no mistake and we will see. We need
to get some points.”