TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team has three drivers in the top four places after a gruelling first full day on the gravel stages of Rally de Portugal.
Following Thursday night’s opening street stage in Figueira da Foz, crews remained in central Portugal to tackle 10 stages totalling 146.48 competitive kilometres – with 15 hours on the road punctuated only by two short remote service halts in Arganil.
Making his first start on gravel in over seven months, Sébastien Ogier held fifth overall through the morning’s first two stages behind team-mates Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans, but made tweaks to his car setup to finish the initial loop of four stages strongly and climb to third overall. He then won the first stage of the afternoon, before Takamoto Katsuta was quickest in the following test and moved up into second place prior to the day’s second remote service stop.
Ogier moved back ahead of Katsuta before the end of the day, winning the first of two new stages in the evening, and is just seven seconds behind leader Ott Tänak (Hyundai) overnight. Katsuta is 27.1s from the lead in third and 1.2s in front of Rovanperä.
As championship leader, Evans ran first on the road throughout the day, cleaning a line for his rivals to follow. The day’s final stage proved particularly punishing and he ended it seventh overall, while Sami Pajari gained sixth in his TGR-WRT2 entry with a strong third-fastest time.
Oliver Solberg leads WRC2 in 10th overall in his GR Yaris Rally2 car, having been fastest among the more than 50 Rally2 cars on nine of the day’s 10 stages.
Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“Today has been a long day but a good day overall. I’m very happy with the way that our guys have driven today through so many demanding stages. Of course, Elfyn was suffering a little bit cleaning the road with many first-pass stages, and the second passes were not any easier for him following the different lines of the smaller cars. Seb has done well to be so close to the lead, as have Taka and Kalle to be up there in the top four as well and I’m excited to see what they can do tomorrow. The same is true of Sami who also did a very good job and ended the day strongly.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s been a tough day. It started off not too badly: the first two stages of the morning were not completely dry so the conditions were a bit more similar for everyone and we weren’t losing too much time. After that we struggled a lot more. The middle loop is where I think we could have done better, because the last loop was extremely difficult in terms of cleaning with very low grip. At least we will be in a better position tomorrow and the sandier stages should be a bit more enjoyable to drive, so we hope to find a better feeling and push more.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It’s been a crazy long day but I think we have to be quite happy. It was not optimal but I think we did what we could with our starting position. The day started with lower grip conditions than we usually see here in Portugal and I think it was a bit tricky for everybody. Then it started to dry up and it felt a bit more like usual. I think the middle loop especially was good for us and now we’ll try to catch up some time if we can tomorrow on stages that usually suit us quite well.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“I’m happy with my day today. It was a difficult start this morning as I felt something was not right with the car setup – probably a consequence of the difficult wet conditions we had in our test. But I started to work on it between stages and the rhythm got better. I’m happy with the way we fought and managed to stay in touch with the lead, while also trying to save some soft tyres for the rest of the weekend. To be in a battle with Ott is always intense and enjoyable and I know I need to give my best to keep the pressure on tomorrow.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Things were going well through most of today. I was feeling very comfortable in the car and I was enjoying the driving. In the last loop with some new stages the feeling maybe wasn’t quite so good and I was maybe driving a bit more on the safe side. But we are still in third position with two days to go, and still in a good place on the road for tomorrow, so I will keep trying to push.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It has not been a bad day for us. At first the conditions were changing and it was not easy to get in a rhythm, but then it started to become drier and also quite rough. With the rain in testing the preparation was not ideal but we were able to make quite a lot of changes with the setup and it was going in a better direction. I didn’t really feel that I was really pushing hard today so the pace was probably where it should be and we will try to build on this tomorrow.”
End of day two (Friday):
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 1h41m26.2s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +7.0s
3 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +27.1s
4 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +28.3s
5 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +32.7s
6 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m01.4s
7 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m09.0s
8 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m50.2s
9 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m54.3s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +3m38.2s
(Results as of 20:20 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What’s next?
Three classic stages north-east of Porto are repeated either side of mid-day service on Saturday: Vieira do Minho, Cabeceiras de Basto and Amarante. The day ends with a super special at the Lousada rallycross circuit.
