WRC Rally of Portugal
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Meeke is also in and goes fifth-fastest on the stage, 15.6s slower than Neuville.
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Tanak now goes third fastest, and that's enough to move him back ahead of Breen in the overall classification.
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"I didn't hit anything," says Sordo. "But we are lucky to drive here at the end."
Sordo has a bit of damage to his rear-left, but he still manages the fourth-fastest time and holds onto a clear third place overall.
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"We're happy with that on this one. It was a bit rough at the end... Thierry did a good time," says Ogier, who admits he might have been a bit too conservative with his tyres.
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Well that certainly makes things a bit more interesting for tomorrow - Ogier loses more time through that final run and ends the stage 6.2s slower than Neuville, so the gap between them at the start of the final day will be 16.8s.
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"OK stage for me," says Neuville. "I was with two hard on the front and two soft on the rear. In the corners I missed some stability. I think he [Ogier] managed better than us."
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But Neuville is in now and fastest of all! He goes 11.3s clear of the rest.
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Breen is in and not happy, having been excited earlier about his tyre choice. he's 23s slower than Latvala.
"Unfortunately there was a little bit of a misunderstanding with the tyres at service so we didn't end up with the package that we thought we would," he sats. "At the end the tyres were dead."
"Unfortunately there was a little bit of a misunderstanding with the tyres at service so we didn't end up with the package that we thought we would," he sats. "At the end the tyres were dead."
Lappi has made the finish and says he hit a wall. He dropped five minutes to Latvala there.
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Evans is in and third fastest after that early promise, 15.4s slower than Latvala.
"Overall a tough day," says Evans. "The grip was so low for me all the way through."
"Overall a tough day," says Evans. "The grip was so low for me all the way through."
And at the final split, Neuville is now 4.8s to the good over Ogier.
Lappi now appears to have stopped.
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"I don't know what the problem was," says Hanninen of Lappi's problem, though he appears to suggest there was an issue with his rear-right.
Looks as though Lappi has hit some trouble. He's yet to come through the finish, whereas team-mate Hanninen (who was behind him on the road) is now in.
And Neuville is now fastest of all through the first split, 1.1s up on Ogier.
Neuville is now a clear fastest through the third split, and 4.5s up on Latvala's current benchmark.
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Ostberg is now through the finish, and 17.9s slower than Latvala.
Neuville did indeed claw back time from Ogier there, but the current leader still has 1.8s in hand after the second split.
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Latvala completes the stage in 24m45.1s, which is a casual 1m43.4s faster than Gorban's time and 25s better than the current second-best time.
Neuville looks as though he's churned out a pretty good second split, and is level with Latvala's time through that checkpoint.
But Ogier is 1.1s FASTER than Lappi, which is 2.3s up on Neuville's time.
Neuville's first split is 1.2s slower than Esapekka Lappi.
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Latvala is now a full 1m06.2s up on Gorban's time through the third split. Ogier and Sordo now also onto the stage.
Competitive time from Evans through that first split - he's just 0.2s off Lappi's leading pace. Been a bit of a frustrating day for the Brit.
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Benchmark stage time in from Gorban. His time is 26m28.5s.
Evans, Breen and now Neuville are all on the stage.
Lappi is now marginally quicker than his team-mate through the first split, by 0.6s.
The second and third Toyotas of Lappi and Hanninen are now also on the stage.
Latvala is through the first split and fastest of all. He's seven seconds faster than Lefebvre, and now 2.7s up on Ostberg's first split.
RIGHT. Latvala's on the stage now, and we have a first split time - that's from third man on the road Lefebvre. He's through split one in 5m12.1s.
David Evans
Stepping back 50 years for the final time, here’s the poster that would have been used to persuade the Portuguese to get out and about on the stages of their nation’s all-new motorsport experience. Sticking a single-seater in there might have had some folk foxed, mind.
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because of the gap created by Paddon's absence, we've only got three cars on the stage so far and no times in yet. Nothing to see here, quite literally.
David Evans
Carpinteiro Albino’s reward for his 1967 victory was this trophy. Doubtless, champagne would have played a big part in the celebrations.
Some more 'fever' from our man on the ground coming your way.
Lights green
Stage is green - Gorban is away and onto the final stage of the day.
David Evans
This year’s Rally of Portugal is the 50th anniversary of the first event – an event won by Carpinteiro Albino in this Renault 8 Gordini. Twelve months on and Tony Fall (Lancia Fulvia) and Paddy Hopkirk (Mini Cooper S) took the first and only Brit one-two. Colin McRae and Richard Burns both won this rally, but they never finished first and second on the same event. And it’s not going to happen this time either.
And with a couple of minutes left still until our stage start - and, let's face it, even longer until the one's we're most interested in - here's another snippet or two from our man on the ground DAVID EVANS:
By: Matt Beer
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