Ott Tänak was the quickest through a shortened version of the iconic Amarante stage (the longest of the rally) and stretched his lead over Sébastien Ogier to 11.8 seconds. The stage win was the fifth of the weekend for the Estonian and the 401st of his WRC career.
Kalle Rovanperä moved 3.4 seconds further away from Thierry Neuville and he was also able to repass Takamoto Katsuta and take third after the Japanese suffered a puncture in the last few kilometres. The Toyota duo pair were separated by just four-tenths of a second.
Championship leader Elfyn Evans continued to struggle to make in-roads into Sami Pajari’s hold on sixth place and he dropped another 2.1 seconds to the Finn. The gap grew to 15.2 seconds.
M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean continued to pull away from Grégoire Munster, who was struggling with the set-up changes he had made to his Puma on Friday evening. The Irishman increased his stranglehold on eighth place to 23.7 seconds.
10th-placed Oliver Solberg finished the loop on hard tyres and headed back to Matosinhos with a WRC2 lead of 46.6 seconds after Gus Greensmith suffered intercom issues on the stage. Nikolay Gryazin is not registered for WRC2 points and trails the Briton by 3.7 seconds. Yohan Rossel was the quickest of the front-running WRC2 drivers and is just one second behind Gryazin.
Pablo Sarrazin (32), Giovanni Trentin (59) and Jorge Martinez (75) retired in SS12.
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“We changed the set-up on the car overnight. The rear seems quite loose now. We will discuss it now and see what we think.”
Car 1. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“My tyres were overheating at some point. It was a good choice from Kalle with the hard tyre. I tried to do my best. A lot of cleaning as well and the stage will get quicker.”
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“Good stage. We managed to adapt a bit and I had a better feeling in the car.”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“Maybe a tyre. We put one hard. Maybe it was a good stage from him (Kalle). Just too slow.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
It’s a beautiful stage. It’s a bit like dancing with the car. There is a tarmac section and you go back again on gravel and there was so much sweeping. The grip was nowhere.”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“I had one hard tyre. It was okay. I didn’t think we did a good difference in any direction. Taka has done a pretty good morning loop. We are doing what we can.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“Quite fun. I had a puncture front-left and lost time in the last few kilometres.”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“I guess it’s quite okay again. Nothing special from my side but still room to improve.”
Car 13. MUNSTER/LOUKA
“I think last year it would have been good to have this set-up. Now, at service, we will make it softer.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“We are still trying different things. Some are working and some are not. This is part of the process.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“It felt really bad to be honest. We are sliding a lot. We just have to get used to it. It’s good fun. It’s like drifting in some places.”
Car 2. SALVI/CORONADO
“I am trying to enjoy more. This stage I like. Slowly, I start to balance the car. I am happy.”
Car 20. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
“Difficult to be honest and very slippery. No feeling. I still have a healthy lead. In some places you take it easy because it is so dangerous and others, the hard tyres have zero grip.”
Car 23. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
“I did it off memory. That’s why we do homework. I could have gone a bit quicker. No-one would have appreciated me sticking it off without the intercom. We noticed it about 10 seconds before the start.”
Car 39. GRYAZIN/ALEKSANDROV
“It was nice to drive. A lot of sideways but quite interesting.”