Thierry Neuville dropped two minutes in the second pass through the long, muddy Santana da Serra (SS12) after damaging the rear suspension of his Hyundai i20.
The Belgian was fastest to the 18km mark in the 31.90km test, but began haemorraghing time soon after. His tyre was shredded but, more seriously, it seemed a link was broken in the suspension.
“It was part of the stage where the road was wider. I hit something very slightly and it seems we have broken something. I can drive, everything is working but the wheel is moving around,” said Neuville.
Team-mate Dani Sordo caught Neuville about 2km from the end, but the Spaniard reckoned it didn’t cost much time.
There was good news and bad for Andreas Mikkelsen. The Norwegian was able to repair his damaged power steering before the start, but as a result he didn’t have time to fit the two spare soft tyres waiting in the back of his Polo R.