This meant that Wilks led Higgins by almost 9 seconds, but the dark clouds were rolling in and tyre choice would be more of a lottery for the next loop of stages. Evans topped the time sheets through Edrom, with Wilks almost 2 seconds further back, but then the team-mates switched places on the next stage, Wilks going quicker by 1.3 seconds. On both stages Higgins was third fastest but gradually dropping further back.
Stage 8 saw the crews deal with everything from bright sunshine to hail and a number of competitors suffered spins or excursions into the undergrowth. However Wilks and Higgins appeared unfazed by the bizarre weather conditions to top the times once more.
At the half way point of the day it was still Wilks from Evans and Higgins but a relatively strong run in the Toyota S2000 had seen David Higgins move up to fourth, albeit over a minute and a half down. Mitsubishis topped the times for the next three stages but then Mark Higgins put a stop to that with a dynamite drive through Fogo 2, topping the overall times, some 3 seconds faster than the nearest World Rally Car. Second fastest BRC crew was his younger brother, David hustling the screaming S2000 around quicker than Evans. Missing from the field was rally leader Guy Wilks. The former Suzuki works driver had been caught out in the wet and had gone straight on into a field, damaging the front of his Evo 9 and retiring from the leg.
This meant that Mark Higgins took a lead of 1.2 seconds into day one, ahead of the welsh Wizard Gwyndaf Evans. Third was David Higgins, looking pleased with how his Toyota S2000 was going.
The first stage of day two was stage 13, which would prove to be unlucky for Evans as his gearbox gave up for the second event in a row, leaving the Welshman stranded mid stage.
Mark Higgins now had a lead of almost 2 and a half minutes over his brother David, whilst Phil Morrow, who had had a pretty torrid rally, was pleasantly surprised to find himself in the final podium position.
