Elfyn Evans has taken a second consecutive stage win on Rally Portugal but his advantage over the World Rally Championship field remains steady, as the top seven on Góis were covered by only 0.7s.
A dust ingress problem emerged for several M-Sport drivers on Góis, afflicting Gus Greensmith, Craig Breen and Sébastien Loeb’s Ford Pumas.
Worst affected was Greensmith, who went from being second-fastest on Lousã to one of the slowest Rally1 cars on Góis.
Greensmith hinted that it was an ongoing problem with his car, suggesting he’d already suffered a similar problem on Thursday’s shakedown.
“The car’s full of dust and I can’t see anything,” he said. “I said this yesterday but, nope, can’t see anything.”
Having started stage three in second position, Greensmith ended it 10th overall.
Breen was irate at the amount of dust that was pouring into his Puma but had lost very little time, only 0.3s off Evans’ benchmark. He ended up gaining positions rather than losing them, moving from sixth to fourth.
For Loeb, it was a door that wouldn’t close to blame, the nine-time world champion looking more like he’d just finished a stage of the Dakar Rally than a quick blast through northern Portugal.
He still gained a place regardless, moving up to seventh overall as team-mate Pierre-Louis Loubet overshot a junction and dropped 13.4s to the leaders.
After losing the lead on the first gravel stage of the rally Ott Tänak recovered well on Góis, going only 0.1s slower than Evans to move up to second overall.
Sébastien Ogier felt that he didn’t “really managed to go fast at the moment” and that his pace was “not good”, going eighth fastest.
But such were the small margins between the drivers on the third stage of Rally Portugal that Ogier had elevated himself to third overall, with the dust-covered Breen right behind in fourth.
Fellow Toyota runner Takamoto Katsuta hauled himself up to sixth, helped by Loubet’s overshoot but also one of the fast seven, 0.2s off the pace.
So too was championship leader Kalle Rovanperä, who put in a strong time despite opening the road. He moved up from 10th to sixth overall but has Loeb only 0.4s behind.
Though Tänak has kept Hyundai in the podium positions his team-mates are lagging behind. Sordo put in a solid time on hard tires on Góis but is still paying the price for his error on the Thursday superspecial, running ninth overall and 1.7s behind Thierry Neuville.
SS3 Results
- Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) 13m12.7s
- Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +0.1s
- Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +0.2s
- Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +0.2s
- Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (M-Sport Ford) +0.3s
- Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai) +0.6s
- Sébastien Loeb/Isabelle Galmiche (M-Sport Ford) +0.7s
- Sébastien Ogier/Benjamin Veillas (Toyota) +1.8s
- Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +5.1s
- Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +10.1s
Leading positions after SS3
- Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) 24m53.0s
- Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +5.0s
- Sébastien Ogier/Benjamin Veillas (Toyota) +8.2s
- Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (M-Sport Ford) +8.6s
- Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +9.6s
- Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +9.7s
- Sébastien Loeb/Isabelle Galmiche (M-Sport Ford) +10.1s
- Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +10.6s
- Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai) +12.3s
- Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +14.5s
