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WRC Rally of Portugal

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"Not great to be honest with you," says Breen, "just frustrating to be first on the road, I've been doing it for two days."
Breen is first over the famous Fafe jump, and sets the opening time of 6m54.6s
Breen gets SS17 - the first at famous Fafe - underway
Here's our latest overall picture after that first stage of the day, where Sordo dropped to fifth:

SS16 leading times
1 Lappi 24m47.7s
2 Suninen +0.6s
3 Latvala +3.4s
4 Evans +4.8s
5 Neuville +5.6s
6 Sordo +6.2s

Overall classification
1 Neuville 3h22m23.0s
2 Evans +39.0s
3 Suninen +56.9s
4 Lappi +1m07.4s
5 Sordo +1m07.8s
6 Ostberg +3m19.4s
7 Breen +4m58.1s
8 Tidemand (WRC2) +13m00.5s
Now the three Rally2 runners - Mikkelsen, Latvala and Ogier. Mikkelsen is first in with a 5m56.8s, 9.4s off Lappi's benchmark.
"I tried to stay on a good rhythm and do a pure first stage," says Neuville, "the most important thing is to get to the finish."
Neuville is home and loses just 0.8s of his lead to Evans - he sets a 5m53.0s.
"Not sure what I thought!," says Evans. "All OK - it was extremely loose out there, a lot more loose than I expected it to be."
"I tried to do as best as possible but it's a bit slippery," says Sordo. He adds his car is "perfect".
Sordo though has lost 6.2s to Lappi and 5.6s to Suninen! He does a 5m53.6s. If he is angry after his penalty then it's not helping him right now!
"Lucky it's only 0.6s, in the beginning I was a little bit too soft," says Suninen. "Happy with the set-up, need to improve the driving."
"It's good to be ahead but one or two seconds is not going to be enough - we need more!," says Lappi. "I did all that I could."
The first in our fight for third overall is in - Lappi sets a 5m47.4s to go top.
"We have done the set-up for this afternoon so it should not feel this good this morning and it doesn't!," says Ostberg. "I knew it would feel too stiff and too difficult. I've set up for the power stage."
"Very loose," Breen says of the conditions, "obviously it's been dry and no rain, just driving through, nothing to do really."
Breen once again has got us underway, sweeping the road.
We have the final five stages today, including the fabled Fafe and its enormous crowds. We twice pass the big jump.
Here’s a updated overall order heading into the final day...

Overall classification
1 Neuville 3h16m30.0s
2 Evans +39.8s
3 Suninen +1m01.9s
4 Sordo +1m07.2s
5 Lappi +1m13.0s
6 Ostberg +3m14.1s
7 Breen +4m53.1s
8 Tidemand (WRC2) +12m52.7s
We have some overnight news - Dani Sordo has dropped to fourth in the standings as he was given a 10sec penalty for dislodging two of the bails on a Porto Street Stage roundabout during SS8. Teemu Suninen is now third overall by 5.8sec with Lappi still in fifth but only 5.3sec behind Sordo.
Good morning and welcome back to Autosport Live’s coverage the final day of action in the World Rally Championship's Rally Portugal round.
And with that we'll sign off for the day. Five stages remain tomorrow including a double pass of the famous Fafe and its enormous crowds. We'll be back with you at around 08:30am BST.
Today’s stages have decimated the JWRC field. Swede Emil Bergkvist had just retaken the lead from Denis Radstrom when he rolled out on SS12. Britain’s Tom Williams was another victim of the Amarante test. Williams, who would have moved into third place had he kept his car on all four wheels, told Autosport: “It’s been unbelievable today – easily the roughest rally I ever did. I clipped a tractor tyre in a second-gear left-hander and the car toppled over. So, so annoying. We lost some oil which caught fire on the turbo, but we got that out. I think we should be OK to start again tomorrow, but so annoying to miss the potential podium result.”
Citroen driver Kris Meeke has been released from hospital following the precautionary checks earlier.
So here is the picture at the end of Rally Portugal's Saturday running. Neuville stretches his lead and we have a new WRC2 leader:

SS15 leading times
1 Ogier 24m47.7s
2 Neuville +2.5s
3 Latvala +4.0s
4 Lappi +10.6s
5 Suninen +12.2s
6 Evans +14.3s

Overall classification
1 Neuville 3h16m30.0s
2 Evans +39.8s
3 Sordo +57.2s
4 Suninen +1m01.9s
5 Lappi +1m13.0s
6 Ostberg +3m14.1s
7 Breen +4m53.1s
8 Tidemand (WRC2) +12m52.7s

By: Matt Beer

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