Elfyn Evans erred on the side of caution to save his tyres and carded the target time of 1min 39.3sec. That was 1.1 seconds quicker than both Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari and seven-tenths faster than Oliver Solberg.
The Welshman also got the better of Adrien Fourmaux, but Solberg had done enough to lead overnight from Fourmaux by 3.4 seconds. Sébastien Ogier matched Evans’s quickest time to move ahead of Thierry Neuville and into third at the end of the day.
Joshua McErlean was the fastest of the three M-Sport Ford Rally Team drivers in ninth overall.
Spaniard Jan Solans led both the WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger categories in a Škoda Fabia RS.
Although he wasn’t registered for points in Portugal, Nikolay Gryazin was second in the hotly-contested WRC2 category in his Lancia. Alejandro Cachón (Toyota) was Solans’s closest rival in WRC2 Challenger.
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“Tomorrow will be a big day. We need to find a better feeling tomorrow but there is a long way to go.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“The second one seemed to be cleaning a bit, but we knew to accept that. It’s been an okay start but there is still a long way to go in this rally.”
Car 99. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
“I tried to be clean and take it easy. We don’t have any service so you don’t want to touch anything. A long way to go. Every day is different. Tomorrow is going to a tough day for tyres.”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“It’s only the first stretch of the race. It’s not the best but we are in the fight. We need to keep pushing and hopefully we can be quicker. It’s slippery sometimes and the grip can change a lot. There are no excuses. We just need to push.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“To be fair we took the risk to take this tyre in this stage to save one tyre. I am quite happy with my day. I am looking forward to tomorrow. so it’s new stages and brand new pace notes. Let’s go for it. ”
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
“It wasn’t the ideal start for us. We struggled on the first stage. We changed the car and felt better on the second one. We have to do better tomorrow.”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“It’s nice when you are in the fight. Unfortunately, in the hairpin I had half a spin (SS1) and the car was like rear-wheel drive. Some work to do for tomorrow but we are going to try.”
Car 95. ARMSTRONG/BYRNE
“It’s a big challenge to do this event. It’s a classic. Tomorrow, some of the stages are famous from the nineties and the 2000s. We can improve. We will keep enjoying and try to get closer to the top guys.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“It is what it is (weather). It has been an okay day. Let’s try and bring the good pace into tomorrow.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“Quite slippery on the hard tyre here. First stage was quite rusty – that happens after a few months out of the car. I am looking forward to tomorrow. It’s going to be quite a challenge.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“It was nice. I enjoy a lot. It is stupid to push here because we have a long day tomorrow. I have a good feeling with the car today. We can push a little bit more and be in the fight. The weather looks bad. It won’t help us with the road position.”
Car 20. KORHONEN/VIINIKKA
“Still, we miss some pace in some places. Nothing special.”
Car 21. ROSSEL/DUNAND
“I think the pace was good to be honest. It is just the beginning.”
Car 24. DAPRÀ/GUGLIELMETTI
“We have something broken on the car. I don’t know what it is. We need to see. We have to try and fix it, maybe something on differential or drive shaft.”
Car 25. GRYAZIN/ALEKSANDROV
“Let’s see tomorrow. This stage was quite fun but I would like to do it on the tarmac spec.”
Car 26. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
“Not great, turbo problems from stage two cost me a lot of time and that carried on in here. A pretty rubbish start to the rally.”
Car 27. SUNINEN/HUSSI
“There are some things, maybe the tyres were not the best choice. We are playing the long game. There could be other things but they are fixable.”
Car 29. MIKKELSEN/LISTERUD
“It was terrible. So much spinning from the diff. I couldn’t get the car rotating. I lost a lot of time. A clean day and a long rally to go. We are in th fight so it will be interesting.”
Car 30. CAMILLI/DE LA HAYE
“I have a rear diff problem. There is no service.”
Car 31. CACHÓN/ROZADA
“A good start of the rally. It was not easy. The feeling with the car is so good. Let’s try to push a bit more tomorrow.”
Car 36. SOLANS/SAN JUAN
“Super happy to be here with this new project. My first time on gravel with the Škoda RS. I am happy to be leading and cannnot wait for tomorrow.”