Miguel Nunes took over the leadership of the Rally Vinho da Madeira right on the first Special Stage of the day and has not, since then, lost it. The Skoda Fabia R5 Evo won all Special Stages of the first section and, even though he lost ground to some of his opponents, at the beginning of the second round, around the four routes raced twice, he finished the day recovering some of his earlier advantage. His advantage now sums up to 9 seconds, which leaves it all open to be disputed on the competition's second day.
Who has also raced most of the time steady in second place was Pedro Paixão, who took over that position during his first passage by Palheiro Ferreiro, and managed to grab on to it with a victory, plus four second places in the standings, amongst other very good results. At the lowest place on the podium is Alexandre Camacho, who, in the first few kilometers revealed his lack of familiarity with the vehicle he is now driving, even if he managed to redeem himself during the second section, also after having some adjustments made to his Citroën C3 R5.
Bruno Magalhães, fourth place, has shown himself to be the fastest in terms of the Portuguese Rally Championship, and even became first during his second passage by the Golf Court, breaking that which was Nunes' hegemony on the scale of the fastest in Special Stages. José Maria Lopez is fifth, after a Leg in which he complained of lacking knowledge of the terrain and of some imprecisions with his guidance notes in such fast Special Stages, which demand an outstanding set-up of their vehicles.
In sixth place is João Silva, who, inactive for a year, revealed some lack in rhythm, and has also taken some time to adapt to the Skoda Fabia R5 Evo driving mode, a very different car from that which he had been using for the past few years. Between seventh and tenth places are some of the usual exciting characters of the National Rally Championship, with José Pedro Fontes and Armindo Araújo neck to neck on their fight for the seventh position, while Ricardo Teodósio and Pedro Meireles were trying to escape being placed last on the top ten of the absolute standings.
