Ogier leads as Rovanpera crashes in WRC Rally de Portugal
12th May 2024Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Sebastien Ogier stands as the WRC’s Rally de Portugal leader having inherited the position after his teammate, Kalle Rovanpera, crashed out.
Rovanpera was leading the rally and worked hard to establish a gap over his Toyota teammates, Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta.
However, on Stage 11 – Montim 1 – Rovanpera was late on the brakes and went in too hot through a right-hand kink. The excessive speed forced the reigning world champion wide and into the tree line, leaving the car on its side.
Fortunately, the crew of Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen were okay and climbed out of the car.
“Yeah, it was a big shame. The morning started well and we went out in a fairly simple place, I just missed my braking in a straight line,” said Rovanpera after the incident.
This left Ogier to inherit the lead ahead of Hyundai’s Ott Tanak.
How does the top 10 shape up after Day 3?
Ogier stands as the rally leader, following Rovanpera’s untimely retirement from the day’s action. However, he had Tanak breathing down his neck as the Estonian was only 11.9s behind the all-French crew.
Hyundai’s championship leader, Thierry Neuville rounds out the top three nearly a minute off the pace of Ogier. However, the Belgian has Daniel Sordo for company in fourth, 14.2s behind him.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta was standing in third, following Rovanpera’s crash, but a rear-suspension issue on Stage 12 (Amarante 1) forced the Japanese driver to retire for the day.
M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux completed the top five, in fifth, ahead of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans (sixth) who completed the Rally1 drivers inside the top 10.
The WRC2 field completed the remaining places inside the top 10.
Nikolay Gryazin was the fastest driver of the category in his Citroen C3, in seventh. However, this was not one of Gryazin’s nominated events meaning he would not score points in Portugal.
As a result, this left Toyota’s Rally2 competitor, Jan Solans to lead the way for the category, in eighth overall. Joshua McErlean and Yohan Rossell completed the WRC2 top three, ninth and 10th overall.
M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster finished the day in P14, having lost a significant amount of time as a result of stopping twice due to mechanical issues, on the first past Amarante.
Read more WRC here:
- Rovanpera leads Toyota top three in WRC Rally de Portugal
- Neuville takes the opening WRC stage win in 2024 Rally de Portugal
- Neuville tops day 2 of Rally Croatia as the rally heats up
- 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.
