Eight-time FIA World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier is firmly on course to seal a record-breaking sixth victory at the Vodafone Rally of Portugal. The Frenchman and co-driver Vincent Landais have won six special stages in their Toyota Yaris GR Rally1 and will start the final day with a lead of 11.9 seconds.
Ogier said: “It’s been a good day - a tricky one. We didn’t expect so many things happening. On Toyota side it was not perfect and we lost two cars. Now we have to finish the job tomorrow.”
Over nine special stages on an enthralling ‘Super Saturday’, where the lead changed four times and the Frenchman become embroiled in a gripping duel with the second-placed former World Champions Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja, the challenging nature of the Portuguese terrain took its toll in both the Rally1 and WRC2 categories.
The outgoing and defending World Champions, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen, had just won the 10th stage and extended their lead when the Finn misjudged a fast right-hander, clipped the banking and the Yaris was launched into the trees, landing on its side. It spelt the end of a fierce session of driving by the two-time World Champion and ruined his chance of claiming a hat-trick of wins in Portugal.
Current championship leader Thierry Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe delivered a polished performance in their Hyundai I20 N Rally1 from a far from ideal road position and hold third overall.
The duo came under pressure throughout the day from team-mates Dani Sordo and Candido Carrera and the Spaniards closed to within 1.5 seconds before the penultimate stage of the day. They hold fourth, although they can expect to be pushed hard by the fifth-placed M-Sport Ford duo of Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria on Sunday.
Neuville’s closest title rival Elfyn Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin struggled to come up with a car set-up that suited the Welshman and he clearly struggled for pace and performance. Evans holds sixth overall.
The first pass through the gruelling Amarante stage spelt the end of Takamoto Katsuta’s challenge for the podium. He and Aaron Johnston had regained third place after Rovanperä’s crash but the Japanese clouted a rock on the side of the stage and it broke a rear suspension arm, sidelining a second Toyota in the stage.
After seeing Rovanperä’s incident, Oliver Solberg lost a little concentration around 200 metres further along the stage and misjudged a corner himself, clipped the side of the road and the Škoda was catapulted into a series of rolls, coming to rest on its wheels facing the opposite direction to the stage. Damage was such that the crew have retired from the event.
Solberg’s demise gifted Yohan Rossel the lead in WRC2 but that was short-lived. Two stages later, the Frenchman picked up a puncture, stopped to change the tyre and slipped to fifth in the category behind Briton’s Gus Greensmith, Nikolay Gryazin, Josh Mcerlean, Jan Solans.
Greensmith then clipped a banking and beached the Škoda in the re-run of Felgueiras; his demise and a good tyre strategy by Solans lifted the Spaniard into an overnight lead of eight seconds from Mcerlean.
Solans said: “The entry list was huge. I saw so many drivers who can win this rally. The key has been we have been clever, no mistakes and good tyre choice.”
Gryazin was out in front in seventh overall but had opted not to score WRC2 points in Portugal. Flying Finn Sami Pajari had blotted his copybook on Thursday evening but set a string of fastest times in WRC2 on Saturday.
Saturday – as it happened
Saturday’s action kicked off with the first run through Felgueiras in warm and hazy conditions, although there was a slight chance of thunderstorms for the repeat pass during the afternoon.
Road-cleaning duties were given to Munster and Evans on a stage where Neuville benefitted from a slightly better road position and moved into fifth at the expense of Sordo. Tänak displaced Katsuta and moved into third overall but Rovanperä carded the quickest time and increased his lead over Ogier to 6.7 seconds.
Solberg boosted his lead over Rossel to 10.2 seconds in WRC2. Pierre-Louis Loubet, Marco Bulacia and Teemu Suninen failed to restart after their accidents on Friday.
Brighter conditions were prevalent for the start of Montim, where Munster complained of road-sweeping duties and Evans survived a half-spin at a hairpin. Neuville also half-spun and then stalled at a hairpin, his i20 suffered minor front damage and a tyre off the rim. Katsuta also half-spun with the front of the car clipping the banking. But an inspired Tänak continued to push hard and finished the stage half a second behind stage winner Ogier.
But drama was unfolding on the stage behind: Rovanperä got out of phase on a fast corner, clipped the banking and the impact launched the Toyota into the trees, where it landed on its side. Minutes later, Solberg - distracted by what he had seen - clipped the banking on the left-side of the stage 200 metres further into the special and it flipped the car into a series of violent rolls. The Škoda came to rest on its wheels, facing the wrong way in the stage, but the accident had wrecked the Swede’s WRC2 aspirations and gifted a narrow lead to Rossel.
Rovanperä’s crash also lifted five-time event winner Ogier into the outright rally lead for the first time, while Irishman Josh Mcerlean moved into third of the WRC2 drivers looking for championship points.
Amarante (the longest stage of the rally at 37.24km) was the third speed test of what had developed into a thrilling loop. Munster stopped for over two and a half minutes with what he thought was an alternator issue after 26km and reached a competitive pace before stopping and pulling off the stage for a second time. He lost six minutes on a track where Katsuta suffered serious rear suspension issues after clipping the banking and the Japanese parked his Yaris before retiring.
An inspired Tänak smashed the stage record with a run of 24min 06.4sec and the Estonian gained the rally lead from Ogier by just 0.2 seconds. A strong time by Rossel enabled the Frenchman to extend his WRC2 advantage over Greensmith to 12.8 seconds.
A run through the slippery gravel of Paredes rounded off a dramatic morning’s action. Munster’s alternator issue appeared to have rectified itself until it raised its ugly head again near the stage finish. Fourmaux strengthened his grip on fifth by getting the better of Evans and Neuville managed to fend off Sordo’s advances to retain third at the midday break by just 3.6 seconds.
A slow rear puncture dented Tänak’s winning ambitions and the Estonian dropped 13.8 seconds to Ogier driving carefully for over 8.5km to the stage finish. It meant the eight-time World Champion took a 13.6-second lead back to service at Exponor.
The WRC2 pendulum swung firmly into Greensmith’s favour when Rossel stopped to change a puncture and eventually dropped 1min 28.2sec to the Briton, although Greensmith was delayed in the dust once the C3 rejoined the stage. The time loss also pushed the Frenchman behind Mcerlean and his closest rival Solans.
Afternoon action resumed with a second pass through Felgueiras. Munster resumed road-sweeping duties but there were no changes in the upper reaches of the leader board with Tänak trimming Ogier’s lead to 10.4 seconds with his second quickest time of the weekend.
Greensmith got out of line after 3.5km and ran the front of the Škoda into the banking, beaching the front of the car off the road and making it impossible for the shell-shocked Briton to regain the track. His woes played into Mcerlean’s hands and the Irishman snatched the WRC2 lead from a hard-pushing Solans. Nikolay Gryazin was the highest-placed of the WRC2 runners but had decided not to register for points in Portugal!
The Montim stage had caused chaos in the morning with the leaders of both categories falling by the wayside. Munster admitted that the earlier issue had been fuel-related and he bettered his first run by 8.5 seconds.
Sordo shadowed team-mate Neuville and headed for Amarante 5.8 seconds behind the Belgian. The gripping duel between Tänak and Ogier continued unabated: the Estonian clipped another 2.6 seconds off the Frenchman’s advantage to reduce the lead to 7.8 seconds.
In WRC2, Rossel got the better of Mcerlean and Solans but the Irishman extended his advantage over Solans to 9.3 seconds. Rossel was a further 23.2 seconds adrift, while Finn Sami Pajari was setting impressive pace and winning stages from a lowly starting position.
Would the second pass through the mammoth Amarante stage be decisive in the gargantuan duel between Ogier and Tänak? Munster complained of a misfire again and ceded nearly a minute to sixth-placed Evans and 69 seconds to Fourmaux in fifth.
Sordo closed to within 1.5 seconds of team-mate Neuville and Tänak complained that his Toyota was overrunning when he tried to lift off. That hesitancy and a furious pace by Ogier in the baking heat enabled the Frenchman to claim the stage win and extend his advantage to 11.9 seconds.
The choice of soft tyres was a costly one for Rossel and the Frenchman ceded time to his WRC2 rivals. He dropped 2.5 to Gryazin and 7.1 to Solans. The Spaniard benefitted from a cross-pattern tyre strategy, beat Mcerlean by eight seconds and reduced the Irishman’s grip on the WRC2 lead to just 1.3 seconds.
The last of the day’s gravel stages was the re-run of Paredes before a single visit to a super special at the Lousada rallycross circuit. Fourmaux continued to keep the pressure on Sordo in the hunt for fourth place and he beat the Spaniard by 11 seconds to close within nine seconds.
Neuville consolidated third but Ogier was not to be denied and the Frenchman continued to press on regardless, set his sixth fastest time of the weekend and edged a further 1.6 seconds ahead of Tänak. Solans snatched a 4.1-second WRC2 lead from Mcerlean but runaway Portuguese Championship leader Kris Meeke crashed out of WRC2 contention and blocked the stage for the tailenders.
A full house of thousands of spectators and a pulsating atmosphere greeted crews for the day’s finale at Lousada. The cars tackled the stage in pairs with a troubled Munster and Evans opened the evening’s proceedings. Mcerlean tackled the stage and worn tyres and Solans extended his overnight WRC2 lead to eight seconds.
Fourmaux claimed the stage record with a time of 2min 30.8sec, which was under the time set by Tänak (2min 31.4sec) in 2021. Neuville consolidated third, Sordo remained in fourth and Tänak pinched 1.6 seconds from Ogier to trail by 11.9 at the night halt.
Sunday
The final leg will see drivers pushing for a maximum 12 additional WRC points. The leg will be fought out over two passes through the 19.91km of Cabeceiras de Basto and a pair of runs in the famous Fafe stage, the second one counting as the Wolf Power Stage. To ensure that points earned on Saturday are secure, drivers will need to finish the final day of the event.
2024 Vodafone Rally of Portugal – positions after SS18 (top 10 only):
1. Sébastien Ogier (FRA)/Vincent Landais (FRA) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid 3hr 01min 55.8sec
2. Ott Tänak (EST)/Martin Järveoja (EST) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid 3hr 02min 07.7sec
3. Thierry Neuville (BEL)/Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid 3hr 03min 07.2sec
4. Dani Sordo (ESP)/Candido Carrera (ESP) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid 3hr 03min 21.4sec
5. Adrien Fourmaux (FRA)/Alexandre Coria (FRA) Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid 3hr 03min 28.7sec
6. Elfyn Evans (GBR)/Scott Martin (GBR) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid 3hr 05min 19.6sec
7. Nikolay Gryazin (BLG)/Konstantin Aleksandrov (FIA) Citroën C3 (WRC2*) 3hr 11min 21.3sec
8. Jan Solans (ESP)/Rodrigo Sanjuan (ESP) Toyota GR Yaris (WRC2) 3hr 11min 31.0sec
9. Joshua Mcerlean (IRL)/James Fulton (IRL) Škoda Fabia RS (WRC2) 3hr 11min 39.0sec
10. Yohan Rossel (FRA)/Arnaud Dunand (FRA) Citroën C3 (WRC2) 3hr 11min 42.6sec
* not registered for WRC2 points in Portugal
Rally leaders
SS1-2 Thierry Neuville
SS3-5 Takamoto Katsuta
SS6-10 Kalle Rovanperä
SS11 Sébastien Ogier
SS12 Ott Tänak
SS13-18 Sébastien Ogier
Stage winners
SS1 Thierry Neuville
SS2 Thierry Neuville
SS3 Dani Sordo
SS4 Dani Sordo
SS5 Thierry Neuville
SS6 Sébastien Ogier
SS7 Dani Sordo
SS8 Kalle Rovanperä
SS9 Sébastien Ogier
SS10 Kalle Rovanperä
SS11 Sébastien Ogier
SS12 Ott Tänak
SS13 Sébastien Ogier
SS14 Ott Tänak
SS15 Ott Tänak
SS16 Sébastien Ogier
SS17 Sébastien Ogier
SS18 Adrien Fourmaux