Thierry Neuville took the Rally Portugal lead after an attritional Friday in which only eight World Rally Championship cars completed the final two stages.
Championship leader Sebastien Ogier crashed during the Viana do Castelo stage in the afternoon. Clipping a bank on the right, he damaged his steering and was unable to make the next corner. He slid into the trees, curtailing his day.
This was after Thursday’s superspecial winner Ott Tanak retired from the rally after the opening stage of the day. The lead Toyota had damaged his cooling systems by hitting a divot in the road.
With two championship protagonists out, Neuville looked to take advantage. He climbed the order to lead after SS7. He then took victory in both of the Porto superspecials to lead by 17.7 seconds overnight.
Second is Ogier’s team-mate Elvyn Evans. He was second after the first stage of the day, before falling back to eighth by the end of the morning loop and recovering in the afternoon.
Dani Sordo, who took six sets of soft compound tyres into the afternoon stages and struggled for grip by the end of the running, finished the day third. He led at the end of the morning stages. Teemu Suninen ended the day 10.1s adrift of Sordo in fourth.
Esapekka Lappi finished fifth, 45.8s behind Neuville after completing the final three stages with a broken rear damper.
Mads Ostberg had smoke coming out of the car after SS6. He then stopped to fix an issue en route to the superspecials. Completing the stages late, he eventually ended the day sixth.
Having suffered a left-rear tyre delamination at the end of SS6, Kris Meeke then had the same problem with his left-front at the end of SS7. He subsequently completed both superspecial stages with only three tyres – his left-rear rubber missing – dropping to 1m18.7s adrift of Neuville in the process.
Meeke’s Citroen team-mate’s also made it to the Porto street stages. Craig Breen ended up eighth. He also had a puncture in SS7, losing two minutes as a result of changing the tyre.
Osberg was one of the drivers who did not reach the end of SS7 after the road was blocked by Hayden Paddon. He crashed his Hyundai 1.5km into the 27km stage, blocking the road in the process. Both driver and co-driver exited the car, but Paddon was taken to hospital as a precaution.
Toyota’s Jari-Matti Latvala was another who failed to complete the day’s stages. His Friday ended after damage to his right-front corner after hitting a rock in SS3.
Andreas Mikkelsen was fourth entering SS6 where he lost power steering. He attempted to fix the issue between stages but was unable to do so.
