Saturday was the longest day of Rally de Portugal with nine stages and 145.88 km of mixed conditions as scattered showers came and went, creating inconsistent grip and some heart-stopping moments.
Sebastien Ogier and Vincent Landais continued where they left off on Friday at the head of the standings in their Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Yaris Rally1.
Starting the day with a 3.7 second lead over Theirry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe in their Hyundai i20 N, the nine-time champion set about eking out a more substantial gap across the morning loop, before Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson blitzed the loop’s final stage, taking 19.1 seconds off Ogier, rocketing from fourth into the overall lead of the rally.
Ogier was surprised to hear he had just lost 19.1 seconds and the rally lead. “Unbelievable. I had the feeling I tried my best. Unbelievable. It is impressive. I have no idea how it is possible to be honest.”
Ogier struck back immediately after the service break, re-taking the lead with four seconds in hand over his Swedish teammate. The rest of the afternoon went the reigning champion’s way, ending the day with a comfortable 21.9 second cushion over Neuville.
“Incredible afternoon with these conditions. They are real fans out here, but we couldn’t give them the best show. But it’s a good day for us,” said the rally leader.
Neuville had a steady afternoon fending off the attention of Sami Pajari, who was never more than five seconds behind.
Pajari and co-driver Marko Salinen spent most of the day holding third in the overall classification, dropping to fourth at times depending on the fortunes of Solberg.
The Swede had an adventurous afternoon, picking up a puncture in stage 15 and a spin in stage 16 in a narrow section, losing 14 seconds which dropped him to fifth overall.
Solberg quickly recovered to fourth but had Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin breathing down their exhaust pipe, with the gap as close as half a second before the final super special stage which Solberg won.
Evans had a steady run, with just a spin to halt his otherwise uneventful day. “I’ve not experienced this before, and I don’t really want to again [in this rain]. It was not a great afternoon. I’m really not happy with what I did in the Amarante stage.”
Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria held sixth all day with Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston holding seventh.
Dani Sordo and Candido Carrera ended the day in eighth place with Martins Sesks and Renars Francis holding ninth in the sole remaining M-Sport Ford Puma, having spent the day opening the road.
Jon Armstrong rolled out of the rally 600m into stage 15 after clipping a bank which launched his car into roll and off the road.
His teammates Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy fared little better. They had a spin in stage 17 and understeered off the road further into the stage but continued thanks to a group of spectators. In the final super special, in torrential rain, he slithered into a wall and retirement with damaged left front and rear suspension.
Teemu Suninen put in a mega time in stage 13 to take the WRC2 lead from Jan Solans with Roope Korhonen holding third in the class. Solans fought back in stage 18 and goes into Sunday with a 1.3 second lead.
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