Thousands of fans had braved the afternoon storms to line the tracks of the Lousada rallycross circuit for the short super special stage finale to the day. The rain was incessant when the Ford duo of Martinš Sesks and Josh McErlean took to a soaked stage side-by-side with slippery tarmac and treacherous mud.
McErlean’s afternoon woes continued and the Irishman slid sideways on full lock into the concrete wall, smashing the damaged car to a standstill in the mud and out of the rally. The helpless duo abandoned the Puma and retired as Sesks slithered his way to the target time of 3min 15.8sec.
With rivers of water funnelling off the side of the tarmac in the deluge, Takamoto Katsuta and Dani Sordo were next on to the stage. They used the rumble strips on the side of the track to try and gain traction. Katsuta claimed the bragging rights by 5.8 seconds.
Elfyn Evans and Adrien Fourmaux locked horns in the next duel and the Frenchman ran quickest. Oliver Solberg ran alongside Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari and beat him by 3.8 seconds to take the fastest time thus far. It also enabled the Swede to pull out an 8.6-second cushion over Evans in the tussle for fourth place.
Sébastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville rounded off the Rally1 runners. The Frenchman beat the Belgian by 1.7 seconds but the stage win went to Solberg. Ogier increased his overnight lead to 21.9 seconds.
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
“It’s crazy and here also. I feel sorry for Josh. Nothing he can do, all the mud. This corner was just mud. This is ridiculous This is not very nice.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Not experienced these conditions before and I don’t particularly want to again either. I am happy what I did in the Amarante stage and I need to try and be better tomorrow.”
Car 16. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“It’s amazing always to come to Lousada. First time to for me to do it in full rain. Thanks to the fans for coming here in this weather. It’s a great show.”
Car 1. OGIER/LANDAIS
“I am glad we finished this afternoon It was a very demanding. Not the best stage here, no grip in the mud.”
Car 22. SESKS/FRANCIS
“I don’t know what kind of show this is. It was crazy and very sad to see Josh there. The afternoon with the rain was crazy. This was crazy. For us it is good to be here. We also showed some good pace as well.
