Rally Portugal - 2nd Day - 1st Loop: Katsuta snatches a surprising lead as his teammates struggled

At the end of the Friday morning, Takamoto Katsuta is the leader of Rally de Portugal with Thierry Neuville and Kalle Rovanpera following him.

Takamoto Katsuta tops the overall classification at the end of Friday morning by setting the fastest time in Stage 2, but he was second and only 0,8 seconds behind Thierry Neuville at the end of SS2. Finally, he made a big mistake in the beginning of SS3, but he was able to keep his first place.

Thierry Neuville climbed to second position at the end of Stage 5 and was the fastest driver there while he was fourth at the end of Stage 4. Moreover, the Belgian reported understeer with his i20N in Stage 2 and was third behind Tanak for 0,9 seconds after SS3.

Kalle Rovanpera completes the 1-3 for Toyota and struggled with understeer and the balance of his Yaris as he said at the end of SS4. However, he managed to gain two positions during the morning loop and is holding his third place since the end of SS4 while he is in the fight for the second place as he is 0,4 seconds behind Neuville.

Ott Tanak lost two positions at the end of Stage 5 and is now fourth as he lost the brakes of his i20N on the final stage of the morning loop, but he is only eight seconds behind Rovanpera before the start of Friday afternoon.

Sebastien Ogier completes the top five and did not lose so much time in Stage 5 despite the fact that he had no intercom and Vincent Landais did hand signals in order to get to the finish line.

Dani Sordo comes right behind the Frenchman for 1,6 seconds and set the fastest time in SS3 and SS4, but he dropped time in Stage 5 as he had no hybrid system and had to replace a damaged rear tyre before the start of SS5.

Adrien Fourmaux sits in seventh place, but his position is under threat by Elfyn Evans who is 2,8 seconds behind the M-Sport Ford driver.

Evans is the penultimate driver on the overall WRC classification as he was struggling with the front in SS2 and could not get his car rotated in SS4.

Gregoire Munster and Oliver Solberg complete the top ten.

Watch below the stage times:

Watch below the overall classification after the end of SS5:

Photo Credits: Hyundai