WRC Portugal: Kris Meeke charges away from rivals on Saturday

Meeke now carries a lead of 1m02.9s into the afternoon's stages and admitted his advantage came from road sweeping, with Ogier first on the road and Meeke ninth.

Ogier managed to keep second place, despite both Hyundai's Dani Sordo and his Volkswagen team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen closing in throughout the morning.

Mikkelsen moved ahead of Sordo on the morning's final stage for third, with Sordo now trailing him by 4.9s.

Eric Camilli took advantage of attrition to move into a distant fifth, with a stunning third-fastest time on Baiao playing a role in his climb up the order.

His M-Sport team-mate Mads Ostberg looked his biggest rival, ahead of Camilli by 3.7s initially.

However, damage to Ostberg's car left the Ford driver running in front-wheel-drive and resigned him to seventh.

Those woes allowed Jari-Matti Latvala to move into sixth as he began to recover from Friday's broken power steering.

Eighth is WRC2 leader Pontus Tidemand, who continues to hold a commanding lead in the class, now 1m22.2s.

Tidemand was also bolstered by Elfyn Evans's retirement.

Evans battled his way into second in class, before broken suspension on the last stage of the morning ended his charge.

Portugal's attrition went beyond Evans, with sixth-placed Stephane Lefebvre's strong form ending after he hit a rock and damaged his front suspension on the Baiao stage.

Thierry Neuville also retired from the day after running out of fuel on the following stage when holding fifth.

LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS12: