A shortened version of Góis was the third stage of the morning’s loop and Thierry Neuville again suffered with road cleaning and worries over tyre wear on a more abrasive surface. He clocked a time of 9min 12.9sec.
The Belgian dropped time to his rivals running further down the order and Dani Sordo eventually claimed the quickest time. Takamoto Katsuta was fifth and extended his advantage over Ott Tänak to 1.9 seconds.
After having the time he lost in SS2 reinstated, Greensmith had moved into fourth place in WRC2 and the Briton pushed hard to move ever closer to the tyre-saving Scandinavian and Rossel. Further down the field, Pierre-Louis Loubet was also running in the top three after three stages.
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“The tyre wear I was surviving, supervising better. I did what I good. I took out some speed at the end.
The tyres were moving too much. I still need some tyres for the next one. It’s overheating but I don’t know
what is the wear…”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“It was very difficult for us. I could not get the car rotating at all. It was a struggle.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“I had a good stage. I am happy with my job this morning. Some times I struggle with the lines. It is not
so easy. It is good practice and good to take some time back. I think we have done a quite good tyre
choice for now. Let’s see for the last one.”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“It was better in these conditions. I don’t know why but the hard tyre is not working with the balance of
the car. We had a bit of understeer.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“I have been surprised. The driving was not good. Quite messy myself. It could have been much more
clean.”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“I tried. The car is too lazy for me. We can make some adjustments. I try my best.”
Car 13. MUNSTER/LOUKA
“It’s a really fun one with a very fast section on top of the mountain and a difficult downhill. We can adjust
for the second pass.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“I enjoy a lot. I can do this stage all day. I am happy with the car with it all. The guys at Hyundai have
done a great job and I have an amazing feeling.”
Car 20. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
“Very abrasive. You want some tyres left for the next one. Difficult to say if it was too slow. It was very
tricky to manage the tyres.”
Car 21. ROUSSEL/DANAND
“It’s not bad. My driving is good in this one. Sometimes on the long stretch we have no power, maybe a
pop-off (boost valve). The fight for the victory, this will make a difference.”
Car 22. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
The Briton was given the time back that he lost on stage two at the scene of Pepe López’s accident and
he slotted into fourth place in the WRC2 standings. “It was a good stage for me. The softs were
overheating at the end of that stage but we had a different kind of cross to Oliver (Solberg) and that
helped.”
Car 25. GRYAZIN/ALEKSANDROV
“It felt different to the previous ones. The tyre wear will be higher on this one to the other ones. I made
some changes and it felt more fun..”