A dramatic coup at the Vodafone Rally de Portugal. Leader since the second stage, Ott Tänak was let down by the power steering on his Hyundai on his second run through Amarante (17th special stage of the event) and dropped to third place.
With just 72.1 kilometres to go, only an unforeseen event could prevent Sébastien Ogier from achieving his seventh victory in Portugal, maintaining Toyota’s unbeaten record in the current season of the World Rally Championship (WRC).
Six years after his only victory on Portuguese soil, Tänak seemed well on his way to repeating the feat and securing Hyundai’s first triumph of the year. As the day went on, and after seeing Ogier close the gap to just two seconds, the Estonian picked up the pace again, gradually increasing his lead. Everything indicated that he would finish the stage with a lead of at least 15 seconds, but a problem with the power steering on his Hyundai betrayed his expectations. “Super easy! Beautiful!” Tänak scoffed at the end of the special, adding later, more coolly: “It’s part of the game, I guess. It’s very unlucky, but we gave it our all. What else can I say?”
Ogier is thus well placed to claim his seventh victory in Portugal, but he was keen to acknowledge: “It’s not the way you want to win a fight. We were both pushing hard, even if he (Ott) was a bit faster. We needed to keep the pressure on.” The Frenchman heads into the final day with a 27.6-second lead over his teammate Kalle Rovanperä, but stresses: “The rally is not over yet. Tomorrow will be a long day.”
Rovanperä, who inherited second place, summed it up like this: “It’s been a long day and we’re here, so that’s good.” The Finn heads into Sunday with an 8.5-second lead over Tänak in what is sure to be a tight duel.
Takamoto Katsuta showed impressive pace at times but lost time to Rovanperä and eventually succumbed to pressure from reigning world champion Thierry Neuville. Just 1.9 seconds separated the pair after SS16, but the Belgian took the lead on the second run through Amarante and ended the day in fourth place.
Current WRC leader Elfyn Evans benefited from a more favourable road position on Saturday but struggled to gain ground on team-mate Sami Pajari, ending the day in seventh place behind the young Finn, who has impressed.
Josh McErlean was the best of the four M-Sport Ford Puma drivers. He managed to outpace team-mate Grégoire Munster throughout the day to secure eighth place. Munster struggled to find the right set-up in the morning and eventually settled down in ninth place.
Oliver Solberg maintains the lead in WRC2
In tenth place overall, Oliver Solberg spent much of the day managing tyres, saving the soft compound for Sunday’s attack and using the hard compound on his Toyota GR Yaris. The strategy paid off and the Swede finished the day 50.1 seconds ahead of Gus Greensmith (Škoda Fabia RS) and 55.6 seconds ahead of Yohan Rossel (Citroën C3 Rally2). “There were sections with a lot of rocks and trails. I tried to drive cleanly,” explained Solberg.
Nikolay Gryazin (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) was forced to retire after going off the road in Cabeceiras de Basto 2, when he was in fourth place. His place was taken by Roope Korhonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2), who even won a section during the day.
At the end of the stage, Armindo Araújo (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) was the best Portuguese driver in the race: “We have consolidated our position and we want to maintain it until the end. We cannot take unnecessary risks. The car has been running very well, without any problems”, he said. Diogo Salvi (Ford Puma Rally1) remains the second-best Portuguese driver, followed by Pedro Meireles and Diogo Marújo, both in Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Today
The third and final stage will be held this Sunday and includes six qualifying rounds, totalling 72.1 km under timed conditions. The route includes two passes through Paredes, Felgueiras and Fafe — the latter will be the Power Stage of the race. The sections are fast and with good pavement, and the highlight will be, as usual, the Pedra Sentada jump, in Fafe, where the cars fly dozens of meters and which has already become a trademark of the Vodafone Rally de Portugal.
Classification at the end of the 2nd stage
1st Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1), with 3h:01.04.7
2nd Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1), 27.6s behind
3rd Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai I20N Rally1), at 36.1s
4th Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai I20N Rally1), 44.6s behind
5th Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1), 46.8s
6th Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1), 1m.58.4
7th Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1), 2m.15.9
8th Joshua McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1), 4m.13.2
9th Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1), 4m.41.7
10th Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2), 7m.07.5 (1st Rally2)
26th Armindo Araújo/Luís Ramalho (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), 17m.20.07s (1st Portuguese)
Program
Sunday, May 18
SS19 – Paredes 1 (16.09 km) – 06:43
SS20 – Felgueiras 1 (8.81 km) – 07:48
SS21 – Fafe 1 (11.18 km) – 08:35
SS22 – Paredes 2 (16.09 km) – 09:58
SS23 – Felgueiras 2 (8.81 km) – 11:03
SS24 – Fafe 2 – Power Stage (11.18 km) – 13:15
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