For the first time in a decade, Vodafone Rally de Portugal has moved back ‘home’ to the north and the stages have already proved a hit with the crews, albeit declaring them challenging and very rough during the second passage. The event got underway last night with a ceremonial start against a spectacular medieval backdrop in the town of Guimarães, which was immediately followed by a super special stage in Lousada won by Mikkelsen. Today, however, the crews headed to the hills for two identical loops of three stages covering 128.62 competitive kilometres.

The morning loop provided a great mix of stage winners and overall leaders, the front-runners changing position in each of the three stages. Latvala finally took control after the third stage, a blisteringly fast time rewarding him with the number one slot. The first of the repeated stages this afternoon was cancelled due to a forest fire, but the Finn rounded off the day with victory in the final test to complete a near perfect day of competition. For everyone, tyre management has been at the forefront and while Meeke ran well this morning, climbing from fourth to second, he questioned his choice of tyres for the repeated afternoon stages. Mikkelsen appears completely at one with his Polo R WRC in Portugal, the Norwegian leading at one point this morning but dropping to third as the competition hotted up and different tyre strategies came into play.

Behind the leading trio, Ott Tanak has had a great run in the new Fiesta RS WRC and holds fourth while team-mate Elfyn Evans was forced into Rally 2 in the first stage of the day when an issue with the throttle and fly-by-wire system ground him to a halt. Hyundai’s Dani Sordo won the first stage and was also a rally leader but the Spaniard dropped to fourth and then fifth in the final stage of the day with the wrong tyres. Reigning FIA World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier has had one of the toughest days of his career sweeping the road. He also had a puncture in the opening stage and while he had a better run over the repeated stages, the Frenchman is 25.9 seconds adrift of the lead and in sixth position. Mads Østberg won the third stage but the Norwegian is seventh this evening, albeit bunched in a good battle with those in front. Hayden Paddon is eighth, and ninth-placed Thierry Neuville rued his choice of tyres this morning, the hard compound proving to be the wrong decision. This afternoon he lost more time with a broken sump guard and puncture and is over a minute off the lead. Robert Kubica had a puncture this morning but has otherwise enjoyed a trouble-free run. Martin Prokop, 11th, suffered with no rear brakes and a puncture this afternoon. Lorenzo Bertelli was forced out on the final road section, the Italian with two punctures and no spares.

In the FIA WRC 2 Championship, Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah leads and in the Junior and WRC 3 Championships for two-wheel drive cars, Quentin Gilbert has an 8.2 second advantage.

Vodafone Rally de Portugal – Unofficial Results after Section 3