Thierry Neuville has taken the lead in the Rally of Portugal with one stage remaining, after reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier suffered a flat tire in the penultimate stage. Ogier came into this phase with a 17.3-second advantage over Neuville, on the verge of securing his eighth victory in the Rally of Portugal.
Although Ogier had overcome the rainy conditions of Sunday morning, his race was impacted when he hit a rock, suffering a flat tire on his right rear wheel. Along with his co-driver, Vincent Landais, they managed to change the tire, but lost two minutes, dropping from first to sixth place in the overall classification.
After this setback, Neuville established a new lead of 14.8 seconds and is in a favorable position to achieve the first victory of the season for the Hyundai team, following their last victory at the end of last season in Saudi Arabia. The Belgian driver was close to winning in Croatia last month but crashed at the end of the stage.
Despite his new leadership position, Neuville expressed caution, stating: “Everything is not yet decided. So far we have done the job, but now we have to finish.” Additionally, the classification underwent a significant shake-up when third-placed Sami Pajari also suffered a flat tire, falling to seventh place.
Toyota driver Oliver Solberg moved up to second place, while championship leader Elfyn Evans inherited third, just ahead of Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who set the best time in stage 22. In fifth place was Takamoto Katsuta, with a 14.2-second advantage over Ogier.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
