Drama at the Vodafone Rally de Portugal. After leading since the second special stage, Ott Tänak saw his hopes dashed by power steering failure on his Hyundai during the second run through Amarante (SS17), dropping to third overall. With only 72.1 competitive kilometres remaining, only a major upset can stop Sébastien Ogier from clinching his seventh victory in Portugal, while maintaining Toyota’s undefeated streak in this year’s FIA World Rally Championship (WRC).
Six years after his only win on Portuguese soil, Tänak looked on course to repeat that success and deliver Hyundai’s first win of the season. After Ogier had reduced the gap to just two seconds earlier in the day, the Estonian pushed hard again and was gradually rebuilding his lead. He seemed set to end the day at least 15 seconds ahead, but a power steering issue shattered those expectations.
“Super easy! Beautiful!” Tänak joked ironically at the stage end, before adding later with a cooler head: “That’s part of the game, I guess. Very unlucky, but we gave it everything. What more can I say?”
Ogier now finds himself in a commanding position, but he made a point of acknowledging the circumstances:
“It’s not the way you want to win a fight. We were both pushing hard, even though he (Ott) was a bit quicker. We had to keep the pressure on.”
The Frenchman goes into the final day with a 27.6-second lead over teammate Kalle Rovanperä, but warned:
“The rally is not over yet. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”
Rovanperä, who inherited second place, summed things up succinctly:
“It’s been a long day and we’re here, so that’s good.” The Finn now holds an 8.5-second advantage over Tänak, setting up a likely duel for Sunday.
Takamoto Katsuta showed impressive pace at times, but gradually lost ground to Rovanperä and eventually gave way to the pressure from reigning world champion Thierry Neuville. After SS16, only 1.9 seconds separated the two, but the Belgian overtook Katsuta on the second Amarante run and ended the day in fourth.
Elfyn Evans, the current WRC points leader, benefitted from a more favourable road position on Saturday, but still struggled to make up time on his younger teammate Sami Pajari, who continued to impress and ended the day in sixth. Evans finished seventh.
Josh McErlean emerged as the fastest among the four M-Sport Ford Puma drivers, overtaking teammate Grégoire Munster during the day and securing eighth place. Munster struggled with car setup in the morning and eventually settled into ninth.
WRC2: Oliver Solberg still in control
Oliver Solberg finished the day in 10th overall, maintaining the lead in WRC2. The Swede spent much of the day managing tyres — saving softs for Sunday and using hard compounds on his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. The strategy paid off, and he heads into the final day with a 50.1-second lead over Gus Greensmith (Škoda Fabia RS) and 55.6 seconds over Yohan Rossel (Citroën C3 Rally2). “There were a lot of rocks and ruts out there. I tried to drive clean,” Solberg explained.
Nikolay Gryazin (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) was forced to retire after going off in Cabeceiras de Basto 2 while running fourth. His place was taken by Roope Korhonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2), who even claimed a stage win during the day.
At the end of the day, Armindo Araújo (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) was the top Portuguese driver:
“Our position is consolidated and we want to hold it until the end. No unnecessary risks. The car has been great, no issues at all,” he said.
Diogo Salvi (Ford Puma Rally1) remains the second-best Portuguese in the standings, followed by Pedro Meireles and Diogo Marújo, both in Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
The road ahead
The third and final leg takes place this Sunday, with six stages totalling 72.1 km against the clock. The itinerary includes two runs through Paredes, Felgueiras and Fafe — the latter once again serving as the Power Stage. These are fast, flowing gravel roads in good condition, and the highlight will, as always, be the legendary Pedra Sentada jump in Fafe, where cars launch into the air for tens of metres — an iconic moment of the Vodafone Rally de Portugal.
Overall standings after Leg 2:
- Sébastien Ogier / Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) – 3:01:04.7
- Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) – +27.6s
- Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) – +36.1s
- Thierry Neuville / Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) – +44.6s
- Takamoto Katsuta / Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) – +46.8s
- Sami Pajari / Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) – +1:58.4
- Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) – +2:15.9
- Joshua McErlean / Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) – +4:13.2
- Grégoire Munster / Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) – +4:41.7
- Oliver Solberg / Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) – +7:07.5 (1st Rally2)
- Armindo Araújo / Luís Ramalho (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) – +17:20.07 (1st Portuguese)
Sunday, May 18 – Stage Schedule:
- SS19 – Paredes 1 (16.09 km) – 06h43
- SS20 – Felgueiras 1 (8.81 km) – 07h48
- SS21 – Fafe 1 (11.18 km) – 08h35
- SS22 – Paredes 2 (16.09 km) – 09h58
- SS23 – Felgueiras 2 (8.81 km) – 11h03
- SS24 – Fafe 2 – Power Stage (11.18 km) – 13h15