Sebastien Ogier took the win in FIA WRC Rally de Portugal ahead of the Hyundai pair of Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville.
Friday:
Kalle Rovanperä overcame a challenging Friday to lead a frenzied see-saw battle for the Vodafone Rally de Portugal top spot. The Toyota-driving Finn topped the fifth round of the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship by a mere 1.0sec from team-mate Sébastien Ogier on a day marked by five different stage winners, resulting in the top four crews being separated by just 5.4sec.
Rovanperä initially languished in fifth overall after a lacklustre opener but posted top-three times in the remaining seven tests, confidently climbing the standings despite reporting excessive understeer in his GR Yaris. He seized the lead after overtaking early pacesetter Takamoto Katsuta on the afternoon’s second test at Lousã and went fastest on the penultimate stage at Arganil, but Ogier’s blistering run through the Mortágua finale narrowed the gap and intensified the pressure.
Tyre management played a crucial role. Pirelli’s soft compound rubber was favoured for this morning’s sandy surfaces, while hard tyres came into play in the afternoon when the repeated stages were rougher and temperatures higher. Ogier’s late surge propelled him from fourth to second overall. He could have potentially led overnight were it not for an intercom failure during SS5 and a loss of hybrid power on SS8.
Katsuta lived up to his promise to push hard from the outset, clinching the Mortágua 1 stage win as well as setting top-three times on both runs of Arganil. He was happy to bring up the rear of a Toyota 1-2-3 overnight despite falling 3.7sec behind Ogier, while Ott Tänak completed the day just 0.7sec further back in fourth after admitting to a “not nice” feeling behind the wheel of his Hyundai i20 N.
Although Toyota enjoyed a successful day, misfortune befell title-hunting GR Yaris driver Elfyn Evans, whose co-driver Scott Martin resorted to using his mobile phone to access a digital copy of their pace notes after misplacing the physical book before SS7. Their frustrations were compounded by a tyre being pushed off the wheel rim in the same stage, costing the British pair almost a minute.
That turn of events was a boon for championship leader Thierry Neuville, who headed Evans by six points before this round. Despite facing the challenge of opening the road and sweeping a cleaner and faster line for those running behind, Neuville managed to stay in touch with the leaders and ended 0.2sec behind his Hyundai colleague Dani Sordo in sixth.
Sordo lost hybrid power for SS5 but still managed to win three of the day’s eight stages. M-Sport Ford Puma hotshot Adrien Fourmaux headed Evans on his return to the Matosinhos service park while Grégoire Munster and WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg completed the top 10.
Saturday:
Sébastien Ogier vaulted into the lead of Vodafone Rally de Portugal as his Toyota Gazoo Racing colleagues Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta suffered heartbreak on a brutal Saturday morning. Just as overnight leader Rovanperä seemed poised to consolidate his position at the top at this fifth round of the season, the two-time world champion misjudged a right-hand bend in Montim – running wide and clipping a tree that sent his GR Yaris Rally1 rolling into retirement.
Ogier was thrust into the lead going into the morning’s penultimate stage at Amarante, but further misfortune struck the Japanese manufacturer squad in the 37km stage as Katsuta, who had lost position to Hyundai’s Ott Tänak earlier in the morning, was forced to park his crippled Toyota at the roadside with smashed rear suspension. Tänak dominated Amarante, outpacing Ogier by 3.6sec to become the fifth different rally leader in 12 special stages. However, rear tyre damage for the Estonian in Paredes allowed Frenchman Ogier to regain control late in the loop, taking a 13.6sec lead to service.
The drama up ahead brought more good news for Thierry Neuville, who finished the morning 40.8sec behind team-mate Tänak after climbing from sixth to third. Despite stalling his i20 N at a hairpin, the Belgian driver is poised to extend his championship lead – which stood at six points before this rally – over Elfyn Evans with the Welshman currently down in sixth overall. Spain’s Dani Sordo made it three Hyundais in the top four, trailing Tänak by 3.6sec having dropped behind his colleague in the first stage of the day.
M-Sport Ford man Adrien Fourmaux was 20.4sec further back in fifth with a 1min 20.9sec buffer to Evans, who was delayed by a spin on SS11. Grégoire Munster had a disastrous run through Amarante, pulling over twice and dropping over six minutes as he tried to diagnose a mysterious powertrain fault. Initially suspecting an alternator fault, Munster later discovered that was not the case and the issue appeared to rectify itself.
Sunday:
Sébastien Ogier became the first driver to achieve six Vodafone Rally de Portugal victories on Sunday, powering to glory 7.9sec clear of his Hyundai Motorsport rival Ott Tänak. The Frenchman is now the most successful driver in the 56-year history of the event, which was a founding round of the FIA World Rally Championship back in 1973. Ogier previously shared the record with Finnish WRC legend Markku Alén before his triumph today.
Five different drivers led the gruelling gravel fixture, which utilised roads near the northern Portuguese cities of Porto and Matosinhos and drew attendance from tens of thousands of passionate fans. Ogier seized the top spot on a tumultuous Saturday, during which his Toyota GR Yaris team-mate Kalle Rovanperä rolled out of the lead and Takamoto Katsuta retired his similar car with shattered rear suspension.
He headed the i20 N car of Tänak by 11.9sec arriving into Sunday’s four-stage finale and stayed cool to keep the Estonian at bay, soaring high over the legendary Fafe jump to round out this fifth round of the season in style. Second place marked Tänak’s best result since re-joining Hyundai at the beginning of the year. The additional seven points he earned for topping the Super Sunday classification helped move him ahead of Adrien Fourmaux to third in the championship standings.
Championship wise, it was also a strong weekend for Thierry Neuville, who filled the final podium spot 1min 1.9sec behind his Hyundai colleague. Belgian star Neuville extended his drivers’ series lead to 24 points over Elfyn Evans after the Welshman endured a torrid week, finishing down in sixth having overcome a coolant leakage through the final day.
Second place marked Tänak’s best result since re-joining Hyundai at the beginning of the year. The additional seven points he earned for topping the Super Sunday classification helped move him ahead of Adrien Fourmaux to third in the championship standings. Championship wise, it was also a strong weekend for Thierry Neuville, who filled the final podium spot 1min 1.9sec behind his Hyundai colleague. Belgian star Neuville extended his drivers’ series lead to 24 points over Elfyn Evans after the Welshman endured a torrid week, finishing down in sixth having overcome a coolant leakage through the final day.
Fourmaux climbed from fifth to fourth, passing the Hyundai of Dani Sordo on SS19 and pulling more than a minute clear of the Spaniard by the end. The M-Sport Ford youngster has finished all five rallies so far this year, gracing the top five on all but one occasion. Evans’ coolant leak forced him to crawl out of SS21 in EV mode and exacerbated what had already been a challenging outing for the GR Yaris driver.
On Friday his co-driver Scott Martin resorted to reading pace notes from a mobile phone after misplacing his physical book, and the crew failed to post a single top-three stage time. Citroën C3 Rally2 driver Nikolay Gryazin took seventh overall ahead of Jan Solans, who was the best-placed WRC2-registered driver in eighth. Solans edged Josh McErlean by just 3.2sec while Lauri Joona completed the top 10.
Results: https://www.wrc.com/live-timing?liveTimingMenu=overall_livetiming&stage=FINAL&championshipId=245
[Note: The story is as per press release]
