Torrential rain had abated by the time Martinš Sesks began the penultimate stage of the day at Paredes. The Latvian stayed clear of trouble on the slippery stage with puddles and patches of standing water to card a time of 12min 50.2sec. Team-mate Josh McErlean survived a half-spin immediately after the start and it cost him more valuable time.
An exasperated Dani Sordo maintained eighth overall and Takamoto Katsuta consolidated seventh with the quickest time amongst the first four Rally1 car drivers. He also beat Adrien Fourmaux by 5.9 seconds and trimmed the Frenchman’s grip on sixth to 10.8 seconds.
Elfyn Evans delivered an impressive time to pull further clear of Fourmaux and, when Oliver Solberg spun into the banking on the right-hand side of the track with the loss of around 16 seconds, the Welshman trimmed the Swede’s grip on fourth to just 0.5 seconds.
A hard-pushing Sami Pajari tried to make in-roads into Thierry Neuville’s second place but the determined Finn was 0.8 seconds slower than Evans. He also dropped three-tenths to the Belgian, who increased the gap to 5.3 seconds.
Sébastien Ogier saved the best until last and a clean run netted the Frenchman another stage win and a lead of 20.2 seconds to take to the final stage of the day at Lousada.
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“It’s very mixed conditions. Some places absolutely flooded and some quite mixed. Knowing where they are is the problem.”
Car 99. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
Spun into the right-hand banking around four kilometres into the stage and lost around 16 seconds regaining the track. “I spun…”
Car 5. PAJARI/SALMINEN
“I don’t know. I didn’t feel really great at all. It’s like surviving all the time. It has been quite tricky, I must say.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“It was a very demanding stage. It’s very tricky conditions. I don’t have the feeling. I go through and try not to lose too much and that’s it.”
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
“When I needed to respond... It was a disastrous stage this morning. With this rain many things can still happen. If you hit a shower at the wrong time you can lose a lot. We made a lot of changes this afternoon with the rain set-up.”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“It was good. I was on it. Honestly, I can’t do more. A small mistake with the set-up but we had to try – something on the front and it didn’t work.”
Car 55. MCERLEAN/TREACY
A half-spin just after the start of the stage. “It wasn’t great. The very first corner we spun. A bit of a disaster. We should be better.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“Definitely this one will get better. We were first on the road. You go around a corner and it was full of water. When you get more information, I think it is easier to drive. It is definitely drying out in places.”
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“I don’t remember the last day I have a bad day like today. It was really bad. I didn’t have the feeling with the car. It was a tough day.”