Sebastien Ogier profits from Adrien Fourmaux mistake at Rally Portugal

Sebastien Ogier profits from Adrien Fourmaux mistake at Rally Portugal

8th May 2026 0 By Kamron Kent

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier has taken over as the new Rally de Portugal rally leader, in the World Rally Championship, as Adrien Fourmaux made a costly mistake on SS8.

Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Red Bull Content Pool

The defending world champion, on the back of his first win of 2026, now leads the Portuguese rally after taking over from Fourmaux, who dropped to sixth overall. 

Hyundai’s leading Frenchman had topped the timing boards, even extended his rally lead, on Friday. However, all of his work became undone on SS8 Góis. 

Both he and Toyota’s Oliver Solberg had made identical mistakes at a quick, left-hand bend, which rocked their respective machinery into the air and crashed onto the grass. 

Fourmaux and Solberg were able to return to the road and continue, but the former was worse off as the Frenchman dropped almost 30 seconds after the excursion resulted in damage to his front and rear-right tyres. 

It dropped the Hyundai driver to sixth at the end of the stage, whilst Solberg remained in fourth. 

By the end of the day, it meant that Ogier – who had been running second overall – had jumped to the top of the timing boards ahead of Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, with Toyota’s Sami Pajari rounding out the top three. 

However, that wasn’t the end of the drama on the second day of running.

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans was slowed on SS7: Arganil 2, despite being the leading driver out on the stages, due to dust cloud which was a result of a tow truck being allowed onto the course during a live stage. 

Despite this, Evan’s has had his time correct to 11m 27.8 seconds as it was justified by the stewards.

Further down the order, M-Sport Ford’s Jon Armstrong had to wrestle his car through the afternoon stages, having lost power steering. His co-driver, Shane Byrne, helped out by changing gears and handbrake pulls in slower sections. 

WRC 2026 Rally de Portugal: The full WRC stage guide and times

So, who stands where after Friday’s action?  

WRC Rally Portugal Leaderboard:

  1. Sebastien Ogier, Toyota 1h 28m 25.2s
  2. Thierry Neuville, Hyundai +3.7s
  3. Sami Pajari, Toyota +15.2s
  4. Oliver Solberg, Toyota +16.4s
  5. Elfyn Evans, Toyota +28.1s
  6. Adrien Fourmaux, Hyundai +34.3s
  7. Takamoto Katsuta, Toyota +50.1s
  8. Dani Sordo, Hyundai +1m 23.3s
  9. Joshua McErlean, Ford +2m 20.7s

M-Sport Ford’s Jon Armstrong and Martins Sesks currently sit 16th and 18th overall, a maximum of 5m 14s off the pace. 

Saturday will get underway at 7am (local), a brief 8.81km morning wake-up call for the Felgueiras stage.

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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.

CategoryNews Rallying WRC

About the author

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.

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