Martinš Sesks was the stage-opening guinea pig once again. The Latvian avoided any trouble and laid down the gauntlet with a clean impressive run of 13min 16.6sec, albeit 2.6sec slower than his morning’s pass. That was 14.3 seconds faster than team-mate Josh McErlean and 7.6 quicker than Dani Sordo, the latter losing time in the rougher last section of the special.
Takamota Katsuta beat his three Rally1 rivals but the Japanese was not able to match Adrien Fourmaux on the deteriorating stage surface. The Frenchman was 9.8 seconds quicker and also nibbled two seconds out of Elfyn Evans’s grip on fifth overall after the Welshman lost a couple of seconds when he was thrown off line in a rut.
But Oliver Solberg suffered a front-right flat tyre and managed to drive to the finish. But he dropped 18.8 seconds to Fourmaux and slipped six-tenths of a second behind Evans and into fifth. Sami Pajari increased his lead over Evans to 13.7 seconds and regained third after Solberg’s misfortune.
Thierry Neuville made a small error near the finish and dropped 1.4 seconds to Fourmaux. He headed to Amarante just 1.6 seconds ahead of Pajari. A cautious Sébastien Ogier ceded three seconds to the stage-winning Fourmaux and saw his lead over Neuville trimmed to 3.9 seconds.
In WRC2, Jan Solans ran 6.5 seconds quicker than Nikolay Gryazin but dropped 1.9 to Roope Korhonen – the Finn finished the stage before a rain shower affected his rivals.
A frustrated Yohan Rossel lost 9.6 seconds to the Finn and fell behind him in the rankings. Teemu Suninen also dropped time to his fellow countryman and saw his advantage over Solans whittled down to 13 seconds.
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“Very rough. I was very careful with the tyres. There were a lot of bad rocks.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“I got caught up in a rut. We try to be as smooth as we can. It‘s very rough towards the end, so easy to get some damage.”
Car 99. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
Front-right flat tyre. “We had a puncture and that’s it. I just drove in the line. What can you do?”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“I had a good stage once again. I think it’s quite on the limit. If you want to go any faster, the risk you are taking is massive.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“The approach was to give everything to get some time back. I was expecting the rain coming for the others. But the weather is playing with us today. We expect the rain and it doesn’t come and then we don’t expect it and it comes.”
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
“I was not really pushing. It was so rutted and so bad. I don’t know if I lose some time but there was a lot of risk management in there.”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“Super rough in there. A couple of times I had the feeling we had a puncture – a big impact on the braking and we had a big moment near the finish in the ruts. We lost maybe one a half seconds there. I just get kicked out of the lines and that’s where I lose a bit.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
“I remember last year Martinš was super quick in here. It was okay. A lot of impacts through the arms. There are some sharp rocks in the road.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“It was not that bad with the rain - quite tricky being first car. There were many different lines.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“It was really bad at the end with a lot of rocks and the stones. I think we went a little bit too low for this stage. It will be difficult for the people in the back.”
Car 20. KORHONEN/VIINIKKA
“I think we did quite a good run. It was really rough in some places.”
Car 21. ROSSEL/DUNAND
“I tried to do my best to be honest. I don’t like this stage and my car also.”
Car 25. GRYAZIN/ALEKSANDROV
“Not easy, a lot of bottoming and I don’t want to get a puncture. There is a lot of bed rock.”
Car 36. SOLANS/SAN JUAN
“This stage was super rough. The car was working nice and we tried to push and stay on the line. We will see".