Crews would only carry out one pass through the Góis stage in the middle of the afternoon’s loop. The special was also run in reverse this year.
Elfyn Evans opened the road over virgin gravel and clocked a time of 9min 59.5sec but still managed to finish 1.3 seconds ahead of Takamota Katsuta. Sami Pajari was back on a competitive pace after his slow puncture and beat the Welshman by 5.2 seconds.
Both Oliver Solberg and Adrien Fourmaux survived heart-stopping moments in the same place after 11.5km when the bedrock bounced their cars off the track into a field. Solberg dropped 7.9 seconds to Pajari but Fourmaux was not so fortunate; he suffered front and rear-right punctures and ceded 29.3 seconds to stage winner and new leader Sébastien Ogier.
Thierry Neuville climbed to second with the third quickest time and Pajari regained third. Solberg and Evans held fourth and fifth with Fourmaux demoted to sixth.
Jon Armstrong continued to haemorrhage time with no power steering. A resurgent Märtinš Sesks set the fourth quickest time in his Ford Puma and retained ninth.
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“It’s really bad (cleaning). We changed a few things on the car. It works well but for, these type of conditions, it is a disaster. We are still missing a lot of grip.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Clearly the worst so far (surface cleaning), not easy. It could be worse (sixth overall), I guess.”
Car 99. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
Survived a heart-stopping two-wheel moment when the bedrock bounced the Toyota off the road in the stage. He dropped 7.9 seconds to Pajari.
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“I think that it is massively cleaning in this stage. It was really slippery. I tried to have a push and did all I can. It is what it is.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
Had an incident in the same place as Solberg, 12.5km into the stage, when he was bounced off the track Into the field and dropped 29.3 seconds with front-right and rear-right punctures.
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
“We knew this one was full of rocks and high speed and we managed to get through.”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“Sorry for Adrien. He didn’t deserve that. He was going so well. The rally continues. We can still fight for a good result here.”
Car 95. ARMSTRONG/BYRNE
“It’s not bad when the road is smooth and muddy. In slower corners we have a system where Shane is pulling the handbrake. I got my first blister.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“It was okay. The stages are slippery in general. The stage in the opposite direction is quite difficult.”