The penultimate day of this year’s Vodafone Rally de Portugal saw plenty of action throughout the field. While Andreas Mikkelsen put in a monumental charge, climbing to third and almost overhauling reigning champion Sebastien Ogier, it was Kris Meeke who maintained the lead, as Ogier complained of a lack of grip.
It was Mikkelsen who set the pace early in the day, initially passing Dani Sordo for third place and looking as if he was well on course to take second from team-mate Ogier. However, on the final stage, the longest of the rally, his tyres began to go off and although he was faster to begin with, he ended the stage behind Ogier, meaning that the Frenchman kept his second place.
Ogier, for his part, complained of low grip throughout the day. In part, this was due to sweeping the road clean for following drivers on the first loop of stages. However, when they were run again in the afternoon, his speed did not increase as expected and he had no explanation as to why he wasn’t closer to the pace, saying he was driving as fast as he could.
Similarly, Meeke was slightly off the pace he had shown so far in the event but he put this down to carrying two spare tyres, since the stages were likely to be even rougher second time through and plenty of drivers had already experienced punctures. The additional weight meant his car was less agile but despite this, he managed the lead of the event, ending the penultimate day with a margin of 45.3 seconds over Ogier. Mikkelsen ends the day a further 3.1s further back.
Behind them, Dani Sordo found himself in a lonely fourth place, also complaining of a lack of grip while Eric Camilli, in contrast, was enjoying an excellent day, combining pace and a steady drive to minimise problems. He ends the day in fifth.
Jari-Matti Latvala was also on the pace throughout the day but languishes in sixth place overall, thanks to the time lost on Friday, with power steering failure. Seventh is Mads Ostberg, having lost time this morning when he firstly suffered a broken driveshaft and then, rear differential failure and had to drive longest stage of the rally with only front wheel-drive.