The Northern Irishman took advantage of the morning section to dig a safe distance for the competition, consistently driving close to the five fastest in the WRC2 category.

But, in the afternoon, Meeke felt several engine problems that made him give up about 45 seconds in each section for the first in the category.

"We had a lot of engine problems. The 'pop off' valve fired 36 times, we lost pressure in all the special stages and, as we had no assistance, there was nothing we could do. In addition, we also lost a protection, three special stages from the end. When the sections are this hard, we have to be very careful and avoid the dangers," explained the pilot from the British Isles to the Lusa agency.

Even so, he won the CPR race and scored the maximum score in the final 'power stage'.

There, Armindo Araújo also had a problem with the car, which turned off, giving up exactly 18 seconds for José Pedro Fontes, who overtook him in the standings, reaching the end of the day as the best Portuguese.

"We put on a show," said José Pedro Fontes at the end of the last special.

The former national champion will not continue in the race: "It is not our championship".

Kris Meeke thinks the same, who stressed that he had nothing "to fight for".

"It won't be very interesting for us, because we have a bad starting position and we will be picking up the destroyed special stages again. The engineer also made a mistake, he forgot to register for the tires, so we will get a big penalty if we want to use the tires like the other [opponents] ", he lamented.

Armindo Araújo should continue in the race, with the aim of being the best Portuguese in the rally for the 14th time.

Ricardo Teodósio (Hyundai i20) was also unlucky, who felt a lack of power in the car throughout the day, in addition to a recurring problem in the steering. The Algarve driver, reigning national champion, finished the 'power stage' in Mortágua with clamps holding the steering wheel and over 24 minutes behind the Finn Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota Yaris), leader of the rally.

The mechanics of the Portuguese team will try to repair the Hyundai so that Teodósio can line up at the start on Saturday.

Pedro Almeida (Skoda Fabia) was fourth in the CPR, followed by Ernesto Cunha (Skoda Fabia) and Paulo Neto (Skoda Fabia).

With these results, Kris Meeke maintains the full, with four triumphs in the four races already held in the Portuguese championship, and victory in all the 'power stages'. Armindo Araújo is second, with 84, followed by Ernesto Cunha (42), Paulo Neto (38) and José Pedro Fontes (37).

The next round of the championship is the Castelo Branco Rally, on June 21 and 22.

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