Adrien Fourmaux lost the lead of Rally Portugal after a wild moment punctured both the front and rear-right tires on his Hyundai.
Fourmaux had built up a four-second advantage over Sébastien Ogier after seven stages, but SS8 Góis would prove his undoing.
Through a tightening left hander, Fourmaux’s Hyundai bottomed out and sent him off the road. While he recovered back onto the stage, the impact punctured two of his tires and cost him 29.3s to stage winner Ogier.
That dropped the Frenchman five places to sixth, 25.3 off the lead.
Fourmaux told DirtFish: “I lost the brakes. When I took the brakes the car did not slow down at all, it was just the pedal to the floor. It happens many times in rally – I should’ve been careful with that, but I did not expect that.”
Ogier now holds the lead of the event by 4.2s, with Thierry Neuville now leading the fight for Hyundai in second. Sami Pajari is third, 8.7s adrift, while Oliver Solberg escaped unscathed after going off at the same place, in the same manner, as Fourmaux.
“It was a moment, yes!” Solberg told DirtFish. “Séb warned me about this corner on the recce actually, so my mistake.”
Ogier added: “I didn’t warn him but he just told me ‘I’m stupid!’ and it was the most tricky corner of the stage, because super quick and mega bumpy. But yeah, I guess it’s also there you can make the difference if you make it right. I was too slow on the corner, but that’s always my approach.”
