2018 World Rally Championship title contender Thierry Neuville has retained the lead of Rally Portugal with 39.8 seconds in hand ahead of second-placed Elfyn Evans.
Neuville began the day 17.7 seconds ahead of Evans and has more than doubled his lead over the Welshman throughout Saturday.
Although Evans took two stage wins to Neuville’s one, the Belgian proved more consistent across the stages and in particular had a pace advantage in both runnings of the long 37 kilometres Amarante stage.
Dani Sordo sits in third after a comparatively trouble-free run but faces a challenge on Sunday with Teemu Suninen a mere 4.7 seconds behind despite his lack of experience.
Esapekka Lappi is also making his way into the third-place battle as the last damage-free Toyota and he will be looking to chase down the 11.1 seconds to Suninen in the remaining five stages on Sunday.
Meeke was the first casualty of the morning after a slide left his Citroen on its side amid the trees. Although both Meeke and co-driver Paul Nagle exited the car unaided Meeke was later admitted to hospital for precautionary checks.
Mads Ostberg and Craig Breen are the only other surviving WRC1 competitors in sixth and seventh, with WRC2 leader Lukasz Pieniazek in eighth.
Rounding out the top ten are fellow WRC drivers Stephane Lefebvre and Pierre-Louis Loubet
Championship leader Sebastien Ogier, Jari- Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen have managed to continue under Rally2 conditions but are out of a points scoring position.
