It had started to rain at the end of the Amarante stage but it was full-on rain for the last stage of the loop at Paredes.
Martinš Sesks was the first into the slippery special with patches of standing water making the going increasingly treacherous. He survived an early scare to clock the opening time of 12min 22.6sec. He dropped 20.9 seconds to his impressive team-mate Jon Armstrong. Josh McErlean was 12.9 slower than his Ford Puma-driving colleague.
Dani Sordo slowed dramatically towards the end of the special with a transmission issue but he retained a distant eighth place behind Takamota Katsuta. Adrien Fourmaux completed the special 1.8 seconds slower than Armstrong but he dropped another 3.1 to a charging Evans in the tussle for fifth place.
A hard-pushing Oliver Solberg stopped the clocks in 11min 53.2sec – 7.2 seconds faster than Evans – and he managed to beat Sami Pajari by 10.5 seconds and grab third overall. The stunning stage-winning performance also enabled the young Swede to pass Thierry Neuville and snatch second place – it was a stage run reminiscent of a certain Colin McRae on an historic special stage in Corsica!
Sébastien Ogier was unable to match the Swede either and a stunned nine-time WRC champion lost 19.1 seconds to his team-mate. That enabled Solberg to snatch a 0.5-second lead…it was an historic moment in the history of the WRC.
Nikolay Gryazin revelled in the conditions and was 10 seconds faster than Jan Solans to reduce the deficit to the Spaniard to four seconds in WRC2. Teemu Suninen won the stage in WRC2 and headed into the service and regroup at Exponor with a 19.3-second cushion over Solans.
Matteo Fontana had moved into the WRC3 lead after the opening two stages of the morning. The Italian was remarkably tied on an identical time with Junior WRC leader Calle Carlberg after 12 special stages of rallying.
Ali Türkkan was just 1.9 seconds behind the duo and registered for both WRC3 and Junior WRC. Gil Membrado was 26.4 seconds further behind.
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“In some places I am not sure how much grip you have. I was very careful.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“It was better than expected in some places. It looked worse than it was but then you had the odd corner that caught you out. I wasn’t too impressed with my run. The surface is so sensitive here to how it changes in the rain.”
Car 99. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
“It was a horrible stage. I managed to keep the grip but I need more traction. I love the rain so I will try…”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“That’s a lot (Solberg’s time). I didn’t feel like going cautious or anything. That is way too much. We will find out what the weather is like and we need to keep pushing and not give up.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“I am pleased with my drive on the stage with the conditions. Some places you have a lot of grip and some places it is polished. It was a mix of dry, wet, dry, wet. The afternoon will be a bit more clear, I think.”
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
“Unbelievable. I try my best, no grip. Impressive (Solberg)….I have no idea how that is possible to be honest…”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“It was a good stage but driving at the maximum of the grip and the stage is getting more and mor polished. I am not afraid about the rain. I am on the maximum of the grip.”
Car 95. ARMSTRONG/BYRNE
“We just tried to soften off the dampers and get some new tyres on. The grip was quite good and some of it was shiny bedrock and some was hard to tell. It wasn’t as bad as I expected. We had a good rhythm. Let’s see what the rest do..”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“Jon (Armstrong) did a very good job then. It is slippery and its always changing. It’s nice to be through cleanly.
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“It wasn’t good but it wasn’t that bad. Now with the rain you see the shiny stuff and it is like ice. I got caught up there.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
The Spaniard began to slow through the closing section of the stage. “I think I have a problem with the transmission. Something has broken. The stage was difficult to get the grip. It was not so bad. Some corners were slippery but we had quite good grip.”
Car 25. GRYAZIN/ALEKSANDROV
“I think somehow the car was working in these conditions. It’s slippery but it is consistent. It has been a difficult morning.”
Car 36. SOLANS/SAN JUAN
“Ten seconds slower is not so good. It was difficult to find the traction. I tried to do it good but it looks like not.”