Third-placed Sébastien Ogier continued a determined push on hard compound tyres and the Frenchman reduced the gap to Ott Tänak to just six seconds with the fastest time on the re-run of the Lousa stage.
Adrien Fourmaux was three-tenths of a second slower than the Estonian, who leads the rally by just 0.5 seconds. Takamoto Katsuta was second quickest and pulled further away from fifth-placed Kalle Rovanperä.
The stage-opening Elfyn Evans was 1.8 seconds slower than his morning’s run and continued to haemorrhage time to his main rivals. He slipped to seventh overall behind Thierry Neuville.
Oliver Solberg spun eight kilometres into the stage and saw his WRC2 lead over Yohan Rossel reduced to just six-tenths of a second!
Dutchman Peter van Merksteyn (Volkswagen Polo- 74) rolled early in SS4 and Estonia’s Georg Linnamäe (Toyota Yaris - 44) failed to finish SS5 after breaking his suspension.
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Quite loose obviously. I was trying to be on the clean line as much as possible – maybe too much.”
Car 1. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“First of all, a lot of cleaning still but we are getting some lines. Quite a bit of humidity. I am trying really hard and it’s getting a bit rough. It is easy to roll the car on the downhill in the hairpins. It is also very easy to puncture in there.”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“Quite abrasive surfaces. Not a clever choice with the tyres but we tried the maximum.”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“We were hoping that this one would dry out as much as possible. Some sections were slippery. We will see for the rest of the loop.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“There were a lot of stones on the stage and I was really careful not to roll on some hairpins.”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“Feeling-wise it is a little bit better but grip is still really low even for the second pass. We don’t have enough experience of the tyres to know what is the best.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“This is horrible stage; very rough. It was not enjoyable but all okay.”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“For me, it feels cleaner. I know where I can take the time and where I cannot. The conditions were much more consistent. I changed the mindset!”
Car 13. MUNSTER/LOUKA
“Feeling is a bit different with the hard tyre. We had one soft and sometimes it was not settling.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“The beginning, I thought I had a puncture again for two corners. But then everything went well.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“It’s got rough in the hairpins on the side of the hill. I am surprised how well it is actually working.”