Sébastien Ogier won the Rally Portugal for the seventh time. The day before, the Toyota driver inherited the lead when Ott Tänak (Hyundai) had problems with the power steering. With his routine, Ogier managed his lead on Sunday to the finish.
“I think I can be really proud of that – to have remained competitive over the years,” says Ogier. “The car was great to drive this weekend. I think we once again proved that racing management is definitely one of our strengths.”
“It was a hard fight with Ott, unfortunately he didn’t go fair to the end because of his problem. Otherwise we would not have won, because it was obviously faster. But rallying is not always about being quick – you have to get it to the finish.”
The eight-time world champion started the final day with a lead of 27.6 seconds on his Toyota teammate Kalle Rovanperä. Due to the unusual power steering on Saturday afternoon, Tänak had fallen back to third place, 36.1 seconds behind Ogier.
On Sunday, two loops of three marks tests were on the program. In WP19 “Paredes 1”, Rovanperä Ogier buttoned 11.1 seconds. Ogier admitted that he started the day with caution.
Tänak marked best time in WP20. The highlight of the day was the famous “Fafe” day. During the first passage, Tänak was the fastest. Ogier was a bit better than Rovanperä and defended a lead of 16.3 seconds at half -time of the day.
Tänak continued his chase and also marked best time in WP21 and WP22. As a result, the Este overtook Rovanperä in front of the Powerstage and improved to second place. Ogier’s lead was still 13.6 seconds.
Decision in the Powerstage
But the duel for second place was exciting to the last few meters, because Tänak had only one cushion of one and a half seconds on Rovanperä before the power days. So the top 3 had to attack until the end.
Ogier managed a lead of 8.7 seconds. Tänak attacked full tube and also marked the best time in the power days. He secured second place against Rovanperä by three and a half seconds.
“A big disappointment,” says Tänak with a view to the defective power steering on Saturday. “We are still too fragile to be able to compete against Toyota. But at least the performance of the new chassis is good.”
After his brilliant victory in the Canary Islands, Rovanperä was also not satisfied with third place: “A long and difficult weekend. It is a big disappointment because we didn’t have a pace despite the good starting position. I couldn’t faster.”
World champion Thierry Neuville took fourth place with 38.5 seconds behind. “I am very disappointed for Ott and the team,” he feels with his Hyundai teammate. “We would have earned more this weekend.”
Elfyn Evans continues to lead the World Cup ranking
Fifth was Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) ahead of Elfyn Evans (Toyota), who was not on the podium for the first time this season. “Not an easy weekend,” says the World Cup leader after sixth place. “With our speed we made life a little more difficult.”
The other places in the top 10 went to Sami Pajari (Toyota), Josh Mcerlean, Gregoire Munster (both M-Sport Ford) and to Oliver Solberg, who won the Rally2 class with the Toyota Yaris Rally2.
With this result, Evans leads the World Cup overall ranking 30 points ahead of Rovanperä. Ogier is the new third and is 32 points ago. Tänak is fourth in the World Cup with 34 points behind. Toyota leads the brand rating 55 points in front of Hyundai.
The rally World Cup remains on gravel for the time being: the sixth season run will take place from June 5th to 8th on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.