Torrential rain had fallen in the hour before the re-run of Amarante - the longest stage of the event - although it had begun to abate in time for Martinš Sesks to take the start. Saying that, the surface was still wet in many places and incredibly slippery.
Josh McErlean was the first driver to make a mistake: the Irishman survived a low-speed spin on the approach to a hairpin after the 6.1km point but it cost him around 15 seconds. Martinš Sesks had the best of the weather conditions and survived unscathed to card a handy time of 18min 31.3sec. That was a minute and a half slower than his morning’s run.
The rain began to intensify when Adrien Fourmaux took the start and there was standing water on the track as the leaders tackled the special. McErlean blotted his copybook again after 19.5km: he understeered into a banking but spectator power got the Irishman moving again and he completed his nightmare 2min 55sec slower than his Latvian team-mate.
Sesks managed to beat Dani Sordo, Takamoto Katsuta, Adrien Fourmaux and Elfyn Evans, the latter stopping briefly after 17.5km. More importantly, however, Katsuta smashed a gaping hole into the gap between himself and Fourmaux in the battle for sixth. Evans was able to move 4.5 seconds further away from the Frenchman.
Weather conditions began to improve as the top four tackled the meat of the stage. Oliver Solberg dropped just seven-tenths of a second to Sesks, passed Evans to regain fourth and he was 3.6 quicker than Pajari, who retained a 10.7-second advantage.
Thierry Neuville dropped 0.9 seconds to Sesks but was able to tighten his grip on second place to five seconds. But Sébastien Ogier delivered yet another epic stage performance to win the test by 11.2 seconds and increase his lead to 16. Was that the moment Ogier put one hand on Portugal win number eight?
In WRC2, a slippery corner caught out Yohan Rossel after 9.8km and he damaged the front-left wheel. Jan Solans got the better of Teemu Suninen by 2.4 seconds but the Finn remained 10.6 seconds clear of the Spaniard.
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“A bit challenging but not as bad as I expected to be honest.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
Stopped briefly after 17.5km. “A long corner that tightened and I lost the front and it washed out under braking. It was a terrible run for us.”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“It’s so slippery that you feel you are almost stopping all the time. So sideways and on the limit all the time. Tricky is the word.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“This sport can be very hard. The stage is very hard to drive and no feeling with the car. Even driving slow I had some moments. It can happen so quickly.”
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
“Not the most enjoyable stage but we made it. The driving was not so awesome. It was just about surviving in there.”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“Maybe I was too safe. I knew he (Ogier) was pushing in there. The road is also changing. I think we have done a good stage.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
Survived a spin on the approach to a hairpin left but the Irishman blotted his copybook again 19.5km into the stage. “It’s crazy. We knew it was going to be crazy but it was mad. We came round the corner and we took off. The last one we were braking uphill and I was a passenger. Thanks to the spectators they were a big help there.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“That was something unbelievable in places. We were driving very cautiously. We nearly got caught in many braking places.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“It’s amazing, no grip in the corners. For some cars it may be a little bit faster but some of the cars are so slippery.”
Car 21. ROSSEL/DUNAND
Left the road 9.8km into the stage, hit a wall and damaged the front-left wheel.