Adrien Fourmaux is extending his lead of Rally Portugal, with Sami Pajari emerging as his closest challenger.
Hyundai driver Fourmaux took the lead on the opening stage on Thursday, but lost it to Toyota’s Oliver Solberg on SS2 who ended the opening day’s three stages 3.4 seconds ahead.
But Fourmaux hit back on Friday morning to retake first position, setting second fastest time on all three of the morning’s three stages to lead the rally by 7.7s over Pajari.
“It’s very nice, it’s a very good start of the rally for now so I’m very pleased,” Fourmaux said. “We also had some good decision with strategy with the team, that’s a team effort so that’s very positive.”
Pajari started Friday morning in sixth place but vaulted to second in the space of two stages with back-to-back stage wins.
He lost some ground on SS6 but heads to the remote service in Arganil 0.3s ahead of Sébastien Ogier and half a second clear of SS6 stage winner Thierry Neuville, with Solberg now down to fifth (+9.9s from the lead).
“Yesterday wasn’t the best so we tried to find something more for today, and at least the feeling is really, really nice,” Pajari commented. “The times so far have been nice today so just try to keep up with the same speed.”
Ogier promised to “make some changes” in service “because the pace is not really what I like”, with Solberg even more frustrated.
“Feeling is horrendous,” he said. “Yesterday there was much more grip and I think the car was better then, and also maybe not the perfect tire choice but that was my mistake last night. But still in the fight so it’s OK.”
Championship leader Elfyn Evans is sixth overall, 15.2s off the lead despite running first on the road, and the final driver in the lead group, with seventh-placed Takamoto Katsuta 19.5s behind him.
Dani Sordo is eighth and 47.3s off his rally-leading team-mate after a mistake led to him taking a hard-biased tire package when he wanted – and should have been – on softs.
Josh McErlean leads the M-Sport charge just 4.2s behind Sordo, peaking with a joint sixth-fastest time with team-mate Jon Armstrong on SS6.
Armstrong is 3.8s behind McErlean in 10th overall with Mãrtiņš Sesks 11th, 6.1s adrift.
