Rovanpera leads Toyota top three in WRC Rally de Portugal
11th May 2024Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Toyota holds firm in the World Rally Championship’s Rally de Portugal with three cars inside the top three as, reigning champion, Kalle Rovanpera leads ahead of Sebastien Ogier.
After the asphalt super special stage Figueira da Foz opened up the rally weekend, the true gravel nature of Rally Portugal came into force on Friday.
Eight stages lined up the first full day of the weekend consisting of a four-stage loop separating the morning and afternoon tests.
How did the day end
Rovanpera stands as the rally leader having snatched the lead from his teammate, Takamoto Katsuta from the day’s fourth stage (SS6 – Lousä 2). From there, the reigning champion slowly eeked-out his lead over his Japanese counterpart.
Toyota’s eight-time world champion, Sebastien Ogier, did not have the smoothest of days as his co-driver, Vincent Landais, lost their intercom through the day. As a result, the French duo were forced to utilise hand signals to navigate the tricky gravel tracks. Despite this, the former world champion moved ahead of Katsuta to occupy second place just one second behind Rovanpera.
Although Katsuta led the day from SS3 to SS5, the Japanese driver dropped down to P3. However, he remains in strong contention for the rally win or a podium finish as he stands just 4.7s behind the rally leader.
Hyundai rounded out the top five with Ott Tanak as the team’s leading driver, in P4, with Daniel Sordo in P5.
The championship leader, Thierry Neuville opened up the stages as the first crew out on the speed tests due to his championship position. As such he had the disadvantage of sweeping and cleaning the road for those behind.
The Belgian had a less-than-optimal day as he suffered a hybrid issue on Friday which cost him time. However, the Belgian Hyundai crew remained fairly competitive and finished P6, 18.1s adrift of Rovanpera.
M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux and Gregoire Munster gathered up the rear of the field down in seventh and ninth respectively. Fourmaux sat just 31.8s from the rally leader whereas Munster was 2m 27.3s off the pace.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans found himself sandwiched in between the two Rally1 Puma’s, 1m 43.2s away from his leading teammate.
The Welshman remained competitive with the field although his co-driver, Scott Martin was forced to read the pace notes from a phone after leaving the book at a time control table. However, a puncture cost the Toyota driver time, leaving him P8.
Oliver Solberg completed the top 10, three minutes adrift of Rovanpera, but the Swede was the leading driver in the WRC2 category.
Read more WRC here:
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- FLAT OUT: WRC heads to Croatia as the championship heats up
- Kalle Rovanpera secures win dominantly at the Safari Rally Kenya
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
