While Sordo is normally guaranteed for 4-5 place on the rallies he likes last year Portugal was actually his worst rally of the season in terms of pace. After the friday carnage he was expected to easily secure 2nd, especially based on his Mexico and Argentina performance that year. But he got beaten by both Evans and Suninen and stayed only barely ahead of Lappi. That was without any pressure since he was not manu nominated, Tänak was out and Ogier out of points.
Though he got also hit by "penalty wars" for moving a barrel on the friday SS that got announced first on Sunday morning (or Saturday evening) . At that time it looked really petty since as mentioned he wasn't nominated and wasn't doing full season anyway, but it probably was MSports payback for Ogiers penalty in Mexico.