Sébastien Ogier retook the Rally Portugal lead from Oliver Solberg at the first opportunity.
Ogier had led round six of the championship since Adrien Fourmaux went off and picked up a double puncture on Friday afternoon, but the arrival of rain flipped the script on Saturday morning’s final stage.
From fourth place, Solberg soared into the lead with a stunning stage time 19.1s greater than Ogier’s, earning him the advantage by just half a second.
The rain didn’t fall for SS15 Felgueiras 2, but Ogier struck true to his promise of taking more risks, winning the stage to regain the lead by four seconds over Solberg.
“I was on a bit of a push now, we knew we needed to respond,” Ogier said. “It’s going to be interesting.”
After SS15 the top four iswassplit by just 7.7s with Sami Pajari going second fastest, closing to 2.2s behind Thierry Neuville. Neuville was 1.5s adrift of second-placed Solberg.
However Solberg picked up a front-right puncture on SS16, dropping him to fifth and six tenths behind Elfyn Evans. Ogier’s lead was clipped to 3.9s with Pajari moving into the top-three, 5.5s off the lead.
M-Sport driver Jon Armstrong crashed out just 600m onto the stage, clipping a bank with the left of his Puma which pitched the car into a roll. Both he and co-driver Shane Byrne are OK.
