Kalle Rovanpera fought back to eventually dominate in FIA WRC Rally Portugal win from Hyundai pair of Dani Sordo and Esapekka Lappi.
Friday:
Ott Tänak opened a slender lead at Vodafone Rally de Portugal on a furious Friday morning which served up drama for some of the FIA World Rally Championship’s leading crews. Tänak’s masterful drive through Góis, the second stage of the day, elevated the 35-year-old Estonian from third to first overall. He completed the opening loop just ahead of defending WRC champion Kalle Rovanperä to lead the FIA World Rally Championship’s fifth round by three seconds.
A furious beginning to the legendary gravel fixture also saw Tänak’s team-mate Pierre-Louis Loubet run into trouble when his M-Sport Ford Puma caught fire at the end of SS3. Loubet and co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul – winners of SS1 – were able to continue after extinguishing the flames but dropped precious time in the process.
Rovanperä was blighted by understeer which resulted in excessive wear to his Toyota GR Yaris’ front tyres. He made set-up tweaks before the Arganil stage and climbed from fourth to second overall by posting the fastest time. Dani Sordo, aided by a low start position, completed the loop just 0.6sec behind Rovanperä in third. The roads were swept clean of slippery loose sand by the early starters, offering the Spaniard more grip, although he regretted his decision to run hard compound Pirelli tyres on the front of his Hyundai for SS3.
His team-mate Thierry Neuville, who relied solely on soft compound rubber, ended a further 11.0sec in arrears. The Belgian’s standing was helped by the demise of Takamoto Katuta, who retired his Toyota with suspected alternator failure before SS3.
Championship leader Elfyn Evans tried his best to minimise time loss from the worst start position at the head of the field. He trailed Tänak by 18.0sec at the mid-leg tyre fitting zone, eight-tenths clear Loubet. Esapekka Lappi was eighth overall while WRC2 drivers Adrien Fourmaux, Oliver Solberg and Andreas Mikkelsen completed the leaderboard.
Saturday:
Kalle Rovanperä more than quadrupled his Vodafone Rally de Portugal lead on Saturday morning with a clean sweep of stage wins aboard a Toyota GR Yaris. The defending world champion left his Hyundai Motorsport rivals floundering in the dust as he posted a hat-trick of benchmark times, increasing his 10.8sec overnight advantage to a whopping 52.4sec.
Rovanperä completed the Vieira do Minho opener 12.8sec faster than anybody else and outpaced nearest challenger Dani Sordo by 21.7sec in the 37.24km Amarante test. He was again quicker than the Spaniard through Felgueiras, closing off a perfect loop.
Sordo didn’t just lose touch with the rally leader, he also came under increasing pressure from team-mate Esapekka Lappi and reached the service only 4.6sec clear of the Finn. Lappi claimed the final podium spot in the day’s first stage, demoting Thierry Neuville – who ended the loop just 0.9sec behind – in the process.
Neuville struggled to keep his Hyundai’s rear end in line and, despite making set-up tweaks, felt that further improvements were possible. Pierre-Louis Loubet retired close to the finish of Amarante when a heavy impact damaged his Ford Puma’s steering. His M-Sport Ford team-mate Ott Tänak was elevated to fifth as a result and now trails Neuville by 36.2sec. WRC2 cars filled the remainder of the leaderboard. Oliver Solberg saw his lead eaten into by Gus Greensmith and Yohan Rossel, while Andreas Mikkelsen and Marco Bulacia completed the top 10.
Sunday:
Kalle Rovanperä vaulted to the top of the FIA World Rally Championship standings with a dominant Vodafone Rally de Portugal victory on Sunday afternoon, confirming his second consecutive triumph at the Matosinhos-based event.
The Finn, who had not stood atop the podium since his title-winning run in New Zealand last season, now boasts a 17-point advantage over Ott Tänak five events into this 13-round season. Rovanperä seized control of the rally when Tänak suffered wheel damage on Friday afternoon, establishing a slender 10.7-second lead by the end of the opening leg.
Unstoppable on Saturday, the Toyota GR Yaris man unleashed a masterful display of five stage wins and widened the gap to a commanding 57.5 seconds before effortlessly negotiating Sunday’s four-stage finale 54.7sec clear of second-placed Dani Sordo.
Esapekka Lappi made it two i20 N cars inside the top three, scoring his second podium finish in as many rallies. His result helped Hyundai to stay within 32 points of championship-leading manufacturer Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Thierry Neuville began the day in third but a broken turbocharger left his Hyundai severely down on power. Time poured away as he limped through the closing stages, allowing M-Sport Ford Puma man Ott Tänak to claim fourth overall while he frustratingly settled for fifth.
There was an exhilarating conclusion to the WRC2 battle as Gus Greensmith claimed the spoils by just 1.2sec from Škoda Fabia rival Oliver Solberg. The latter had led by 35.4sec overnight before being lumbered with a one-minute time penalty. Andreas Mikkelsen, Yohan Rossel and Teemu Suninen – also contesting WRC2 – completed the leaderboard.
Here’s WRC Rally Portugal results: https://www.wrc.com/en/wrcplus/live-timing/
[Note: The story is as per press release]