Elfyn Evans was again handed stage-cleaning duties with a changeable weather forecast suggesting rain in the area. He laid down the gauntlet with a clean run, clocked a time of 9min 14.7sec and extended his lead over Takamoto Katsuta by 5.1 seconds. Sami Pajari ran 2.1 seconds quicker than the championship leader but Oliver Solberg struggled through the stage, ceded 9.8 seconds to Pajari and lost the rally lead.
Adrien Fourmaux enjoyed the stage and moved into the outright lead, despite dropping 1.4 seconds to the stage-winning Pajari. Sébastien Ogier ominously climbed to second overall, just four seconds behind his fellow Frenchman.
A frustrated Dani Sordo admitted his tyre choice had been incorrect and he dropped 11 seconds to the stage winner.
Finland’s Roope Korhonen was the quickest of the early WRC2 runners.
Robert Virves (23 – wheel off), Diogo Marújo (52 - accident) and Romet Jürgenson (35) retired on Thursday afternoon and rejoined the rally this morning.
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“It felt quite okay but I guess Elfyn did good. Nothing special.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Let’s see how it evolves. It’s not a very thick layer of dampness. A low level of grip overall.”
Car 99. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
“Not good. The feeling was horrible in the car and it was quite slippery. I know the stage well with Rally2 but with this car it’s different.”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“It’s good. I tried to make a good time., The car felt better than yesterday. It was quite a nice feeling. It’s a bit damp and it’s helping us in the front. It feel s like it’s cleaning but we don’t know.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“It’s an amazing stage every year. It’s very demanding and different to the others. I just enjoy driving the car on gravel – very good fun.”
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
“Not fun. We are fighting.”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“I did what I could, honestly. Like yesterday, I am fighting understeer, oversteer and mid-corner balance change. The car is very soft and I don’t like it at all. We need to work on that.”
Car 95. ARMSTRONG/BYRNE
“It’s quite an interesting stage and a bit faster than the ones we had yesterday. I am sure we can go faster. It’s an okay start to the morning.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“It’s okay. We can do a bit more in there.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“I wanted to get through. Not good but it’s something we need to work on. We will get there.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“We put hard tyres instead of soft yesterday. The guys from Formula One don’t put the tyres two days before. We want to push. We need to give all the confidence to the meteo (weather) guys. This is a stupid thing. For the future, they can modify it.”
Car 20. KORHONEN/VIINIKKA
“There were quite tricky and slippery places but I tried a bit more than yesterday.”
Car 21. ROSSEL/DUNAND
“I don’t expect to restart in first (WRC2). A good stage but no grip and traction to be honest. We need to see on the next one.”
Car 24. DAPRÀ/GUGLIELMETTI
“I really enjoyed. There was a bit more commitment than yesterday. Let’s see the guys behind us. We improved a bit.”
Car 25. GRYAZIN/ALEKSANDROV
“I was feeling not good and we had some pop-off issue at the beginning. Let’s see if we can change something on the next one. It was not our pace at all.”