TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team finished the penultimate day of Rally de Portugal with Sébastien Ogier leading team-mate Kalle Rovanperä at the top of the order.
Following a marathon first full day of the event on Friday, Saturday followed a more regular format with two loops of three classic stages to the north-east of Porto being run either side of mid-day service in Matosinhos.
Ogier began the day seven seconds behind leader Ott Tänak and cut that gap to 2s with a pair of stage wins to begin the morning, only for his rival to respond and open the gap back up to 11.8s at the end of the first loop.
Stage times remained close between the pair in the rougher conditions of the afternoon until Tänak was slowed by an issue in the penultimate test, allowing Ogier to move to the front.
With a further stage win in the Lousada super special, Ogier ended the day 27.6s ahead of Rovanperä, who had earlier traded third position with team-mate Takamoto Katsuta through the morning loop. Rovanperä set the fastest time in SS17 and is 8.5s ahead of Tänak going into the final day. He was also able to increase his gap to Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), who did manage to get ahead of Katsuta for fourth.
Sami Pajari had a strong and consistent day to remain sixth, with Elfyn Evans holding seventh and looking towards a strong final day when bonus points will be on offer for Super Sunday and the Power Stage.
Oliver Solberg continues to lead WRC2 in 10th position overall, with fellow GR Yaris Rally2 drivers Roope Korhonen, Jan Solans and Alejandro Cachón also inside the category top six.
Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“We have to be happy to have two cars in the lead tonight. Of course, it was unfortunate for Ott what happened to him because it was a great battle, but the conditions seemed to be very rough this afternoon and this kind of thing can happen; it’s part of rallying. Thankfully all of our cars could reach the end of the day and our drivers did a good job once again today. Seb is in a good position now but there are still 72 kilometres to drive without any service, so nothing is decided yet and we have to stay focused.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s not been the day we were hoping for today. The feeling hasn’t been too bad behind the wheel but we weren’t able to find the speed to go with it. We won’t give up though and we have to stay positive and try to find something to improve for tomorrow. The pace was there at the start of the weekend so we have to understand why it’s gone the way it has. Tomorrow is a new day and we’ll give it everything to push for some more points.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It’s been quite a good day for us in the sense that we were able to gain a couple of positions, both in the overall standings and in the road order for tomorrow. We had much softer conditions than we have seen here before and the second pass was really rough, so it was tough for the tyres and the cars. We haven’t quite had the optimal speed so it might not be easy to keep Ott behind us, but of course we will try our best tomorrow to take as many points as we can.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s been another tough day today. This morning it was quite enjoyable but in the afternoon the conditions were so rough with huge ruts. It took a lot of effort to keep it on the road without issues and I was glad to get to the end of the day. It was not the way we would have liked to take the lead, and I really feel sorry for Ott, but it’s also part of the game in this sport and things like this can happen, especially when conditions are rough like today. We just have to focus on our job and try to finish it tomorrow on what is still a long and demanding Sunday.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“This morning I had a good comfortable feeling in the car and good pace and I was able to have a nice fun fight with Kalle. In the afternoon, when the conditions totally changed and became rougher, it was much harder and unfortunately we lost a position. But now I just need to focus on what I can do tomorrow. The gaps are still quite close and I will try to keep pushing and see what happens.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“I’m quite happy with the performance that we had today. It’s not so easy to read the pace because we could see there was some road cleaning effect. The morning especially was quite enjoyable with a nice flow. This afternoon there were some extremely rough sections, which was something new for me in this car, but we managed to get through it and let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
End of day three (Saturday):
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 3h01m4.7s
2 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +27.6s
3 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +36.1s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +44.6s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +46.8s
6 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m58.4s
7 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m15.9s
8 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +4m13.2s
9 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +4m41.7s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +7m07.5s
(Results as of 19:40 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What’s next?
Another three stages north-east of Porto are each run twice on Sunday, this time without a service break between the two loops, forming a total of 72.16 competitive kilometres. Paredes and Felgueiras are followed by the famous Fafe – the second pass of which will serve as the rally-ending Power Stage.
