Ogier wins Rally de Portugal

Sebastien Ogier extended his points lead after win in FIA WRC Rally de Portugal after Saturday’s slip from Ott Tanak, as Kalle Rovanpera was third.

Friday:

Ott Tänak leads Vodafone Rally de Portugal after a punishing opening leg on Friday, with just 7.0sec splitting the Hyundai driver and Sébastien Ogier following nearly 150 kilometres of gravel action. Tänak, at the wheel of an i20 N Rally1, also marked a personal milestone by reaching 400 FIA World Rally Championship stage wins — the latest coming on the day’s final test, Sever / Albergaria. He had earlier snatched the lead from Thursday night super special winner Elfyn Evans on Friday’s opener and went on to win four of the day’s 10 stages in total.

Adrien Fourmaux matched Tänak’s early pace and hit back with two stage wins of his own to close the gap to just two-tenths of a second at midday. But his challenge ended in the afternoon when he clipped a hidden rock at a hairpin, breaking the front-left steering on his Hyundai and retiring on the spot. That briefly promoted Takamoto Katsuta to second, but it wasn’t long before Ogier moved ahead.

The Frenchman struggled with an overly soft set-up in the morning but made changes and found form in the second loop, pulling 20.1sec clear of Katsuta by day’s end. Kalle Rovanperä made it three Toyotas in the top four, ending the day just 1.2sec behind Katsuta. The two-time world champion admitted the surface felt more slippery than expected but is now in position to eat into Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans’s championship lead — with the Welshman down in seventh, behind defending champion Thierry Neuville and Sami Pajari.

Neuville was lucky to avoid damage after striking a bank on SS2. He recovered to end the leg just 4.4sec behind Rovanperä, while Evans, burdened with road-opening duties, struggled for traction and slipped back to more than a minute off the lead pace. Grégoire Munster and Josh McErlean placed eighth and ninth respectively for M-Sport Ford while Oliver Solberg led WRC2 and rounded out the top 10. There was disappointment for shakedown pacesetter Mārtiņš Sesks, whose day unravelled early with a wheel change on SS2. His troubles worsened when he picked up a three-minute time penalty later in the leg.

Saturday:

Sébastien Ogier holds a surprise overnight lead at Vodafone Rally de Portugal after Ott Tänak’s hopes of a long-awaited victory were dashed by a power steering failure late on Saturday afternoon. Tänak had led the gravel fixture since Friday morning and hit back from a difficult start to this penultimate leg to win three consecutive stages and rebuild a double-digit advantage. Heading into the penultimate test, Amarante 2, the Hyundai driver looked firmly in control – but it all came undone on the rally’s longest stage.

A power steering issue struck halfway through the 22.10km test, forcing Tänak to wrestle his i20 N Rally1 to the finish. He dropped over 45sec and relinquished the lead he had fought so hard to build, tumbling to third overall in the process. Ogier, who had spent most of the day shadowing Tänak, suddenly found himself out front. The eight-time world champion now leads the rally by 27.6sec heading into Sunday’s six-stage finale and stands on the verge of a record-extending seventh Vodafone Rally de Portugal triumph.

Katsuta’s pace faded in the afternoon, and he dropped behind Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who climbed to fourth on the penultimate stage. The Belgian now trails Rovanperä by 17.0sec, with Katsuta a further 2.2sec back in fifth. Championship leader Elfyn Evans endured another difficult day and sits seventh overall behind Sami Pajari.

After losing time as Friday’s road opener, Evans struggled again to find a rhythm despite a better starting position on Saturday and now trails Pajari by 17.5sec. Josh McErlean moved up to eighth, edging past M-Sport Ford colleague Grégoire Munster on the opening stage. The Irishman ended the day 28.5sec ahead in their intra-team duel. Oliver Solberg rounded out the leaderboard in 10th and continued to dominate the WRC2 category, maintaining a 50.1sec margin over Gus Greensmith.