Adrien Fourmaux has retaken the lead of Rally Portugal as Oliver Solberg slipped to fourth on Frdiay’s opening stage.
Fourmaux won Portugal’s first test but it was Solberg who led the rally overnight by 3.4s.
However the Toyota driver struggled on SS4 Mortágua, posting just the seventh-fastest time to fall five seconds behind new leader Fourmaux.
He reckoned that was a combination of an ill feeling in the car, and with his tire choice which was one hard and one soft across each axle.
“Not good,” said Solberg. “The feeling was horrible in the car and quite slippery also, so not good. Tricky to get the feeling. I know the stage well with Rally2, but with this car it’s… different.”
Sami Pajari was quickest on the stage by 1.4s over Fourmaux to move ahead of Thierry Neuville into fifth position, with Fourmaux now leading Sébastien Ogier by exactly four seconds.
“It’s an amazing stage every year, very demanding, it’s very different to the others,” said the Hyundai driver. “I just enjoy driving the car and on gravel it’s vey nice, on gravel it’s good fun.”
Elfyn Evans is now onto the provisional podium despite starting as the first car on the road. He’s eight tenths behind Ogier and just two tenths ahead of Solberg.
Dani Sordo, who felt he made a “mistake” taking hard tires on Friday, is 17.9s off the lead but 0.4s ahead of Takamoto Katsuta; airing his frustration about needing to select his morning’s tires the night before.
Josh McErlean remains the leading M-Sport Ford ahead of Jon Armstrong and Mãrtiņš Sesks.
