M-Sport's Ott Tänak holds a 4.6 second lead after the opening day of Rally Portugal, with a tight top-six covered by less than 20 seconds – four of which led at one point during the day.
Tänak heads Dani Sordo on the leaderboard at the end of Friday's running with championship leader Sébastien Ogier just 0.4s back in third.
The day began with Thierry Neuville and Mads Østberg at the head of the table following the short speed test at Lousada rallycross circuit, before Hayden Paddon, Jari-Matti Latvala and Kris Meeke traded stage wins to each move up the order before the final dirt stage took its toll.
The Ponte de Lima special stage caught out Latvala as he rolled his Toyota Yaris, losing five minutes in the process. Meanwhile Meeke's suspension took damage, forcing him to retire.
Paddon in his Hyundai i20 suffered an electrical fault, costing the New Zealander more than ten minutes, dropping him down to 24th place.
Neuville was caught out by a slow Latvala and lost 20 seconds before he could get past, meaning the Hyundai driver finished fourth, 11.1s adrift of the lead. Craig Breen was fifth, a further 1.8s back.
Sordo made the most of the drama to jump from seventh to second, whilst Tänak extended his lead by mere tenths in the final two street stages.
Elfyn Evans was seventh ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing duo Juho Hänninen and debutant Esapekka Lappi in seventh and eighth, with WRC 2 leader Andreas Mikkelsen and fellow Norwegian Østberg – delayed by a puncture – completing the leaderboard.
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