WRC Rally of Portugal
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We now have the Rally2 runners - led by Mikkelsen. None are matching Evans' pace though Ogier is 1.2s off after three splits.
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"I don't know," says Neuville when asked if the gap to Evans is a matter of tyre choice, "I took it quite carefully, it's quite rough, careful under braking, it's OK."
Neuville is home with a 10m54.9s, losing 6.3s of his lead to Evans. He's still comfortable though.
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"It was a good run," says Evans, "I was a bit aggressive in a couple of places but overall OK, we have to focus now for the next two."
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Wow - a 10m48.6s mark from Evans, the quickest we've had and 9.1s quicker than Sordo. His advantage overall going into this one was only 5s!
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"The car started to move at the rear a lot," says Sordo on losing time to Suninen on the final split, "I don't know if it's because of the hard tyres. It was fast."
Sordo cuts the beam and he's third quickest so far - a 10m57.7s
Evans now is 5.3s under Sordo at the final split.
Now we have our top three - and Evans is quickest at the first split, 1.5s under Neuville and 1.8s under Sordo.
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"Yeah that's rallying when we are driving on the limit," says Suninen on the nip and tuck split times versus Lappi, "I believe we are flat out."
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Suninen pips Lappi by 0.6s!
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"Our tyre choice for this one wasn't the best so I tried to give everything," says a smiling Lappi.
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Lappi sets a 10m54.2s, and goes top by over 10s.
Suninen behind though is neck and neck with Lappi through the splits. These guys are 5s apart for fourth place in the rally.
Lappi continues to fly - 6.6s quicker than Breen at the final split.
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"This was the first stage for me with these tyres," says Ostberg, "not so bad, but quite slippery. Hopefully [the tyre choice] will help us on the next stages."
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He was behind in every split but Ostberg beats Breen's final time - a 11m04.7s - 0.8s under.
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"Being first on the road I thought it was the better choice to go on the soft," says Breen - discussing tyres. "It's just nice to have some grip and to enjoy yourself."
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Breen sets the benchmark at 11m05.5s
As if we didn't need more fun, there are raindrops on Breen's windscreen.
Lappi appears to be continuing his pace from this morning, he's fastest of all so far at the first split, 1.5s under Breen's mark.
Breen has started impressively - he's 3.1s quicker than Ostberg behind at the first split, and maintains the gap in the second split too.
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Green flag
We're off and running - Craig Breen once again leads us away.
Here's our story too about Kris Meeke crashing out this morning, and Meeke being taken to hospital for precautionary checks : 
David Evans
Further to last night’s story… look what we found in the car park at Rally HQ. It’s Antonio Pinto dos Santos’ Renault 4.
Tyre choice of course was a major factor this time yesterday...
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Here’s a little reminder of how things stand after this morning's loop...
Overall classification
1 Neuville 2h27m03s
2 Evans +29.9s
3 Sordo +34.9s
4 Suninen +54.6s
5 Lappi +59.4s
6 Ostberg +1m22.4s
7 Breen +3m42.4s
8 Lefebvre (WRC2) +6m24.6s
Overall classification
1 Neuville 2h27m03s
2 Evans +29.9s
3 Sordo +34.9s
4 Suninen +54.6s
5 Lappi +59.4s
6 Ostberg +1m22.4s
7 Breen +3m42.4s
8 Lefebvre (WRC2) +6m24.6s
Here’s our report from this morning, wherein Thierry Neuville stretched his lead to half a minute over Elfyn Evans : 
This afternoon we repeat the three stages from this morning - so again we head east to demanding roads in the Cabreira mountains.
Good afternoon and welcome back to Autosport Live’s coverage of Saturday’s action in the World Rally Championship's Rally Portugal round.
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Here too is a little reminder of Autosport’s guide to the opening stage:
SS13 Vieira do Minho (10.83 miles)
After the opening day to the north close to the Spanish border, the rally turns inland on Saturday. This stage runs through the Sierra Cabreira mountains and includes a couple of small stretches of asphalt linking the gravel sections. For the most part the stage is quick and flowing, but there are places where it narrows down and gets really technical.
On top of that, this is where the cleaning effect will really start to come into play. Traditionally, it’s this stage and Cabeceiras de Basto that have been covered with the most loose gravel.
SS13 Vieira do Minho (10.83 miles)
After the opening day to the north close to the Spanish border, the rally turns inland on Saturday. This stage runs through the Sierra Cabreira mountains and includes a couple of small stretches of asphalt linking the gravel sections. For the most part the stage is quick and flowing, but there are places where it narrows down and gets really technical.
On top of that, this is where the cleaning effect will really start to come into play. Traditionally, it’s this stage and Cabeceiras de Basto that have been covered with the most loose gravel.
And with that we sign off until 3pm BST, when we do the three stages all again!
Here is our report of the morning's action, wherein Neuville stretched his led to half a minute : 
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Let's check in fully with how things stand after this morning's loop...
SS12 leading times
1 Neuville 24m56.8s
2 Latvala +6.6s
3 Lappi +8.7s
4 Sordo +10.6s
5 Ogier +11.1s
6 Suninen 13.2s
Overall classification
1 Neuville 2h27m03s
2 Evans +29.9s
3 Sordo +34.9s
4 Suninen +54.6s
5 Lappi +59.4s
6 Ostberg +1m22.4s
7 Breen +3m42.4s
8 Lefebvre (WRC2) +6m24.6s
SS12 leading times
1 Neuville 24m56.8s
2 Latvala +6.6s
3 Lappi +8.7s
4 Sordo +10.6s
5 Ogier +11.1s
6 Suninen 13.2s
Overall classification
1 Neuville 2h27m03s
2 Evans +29.9s
3 Sordo +34.9s
4 Suninen +54.6s
5 Lappi +59.4s
6 Ostberg +1m22.4s
7 Breen +3m42.4s
8 Lefebvre (WRC2) +6m24.6s
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All of that means Neuville has a pretty healthy lead of 29.9s over Evans, who as mentioned earlier is just 5s ahead of Sordo.
Latval comes through now and last of our WRC cars at stage end. He goes second - but dropped time towards the end of that run and ended up 6.6s slower than Neuville.
By: Matt Beer
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