Ricardo Moura, with a Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo, concluded the first leg of the 56th Azores Rallye at the front of the classification. The local hero took the lead right after the first stage and never left it. The Austrian Simon Wagner, in an identical car, was well in the second half of the day and is now second, 8.4 seconds behind the leader. Spanish Efren Llarena was running in second place but was overtaken by Wagner and is now third, 9 seconds behind the leader.
The fourth place is occupie by Ken Torn, who, with a Ford Fiesta R5 Mk II, was second during most of the day but dropped two places after the second passage through the iconic Tronqueira. Fifth, Armindo Araújo made an excellent recovery from the 15th position in which he started the competition and is in front of Romanian Simone Tempestini. Spanish Javier Pardo and the Italians Simone Campedelli and Alberto Battistolli occupy the next places. Closing the top ten is the Azorean Rúben Rodrigues with a Citroën C3 Rally2.