TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team’s Sébastien Ogier mastered changeable weather conditions to increase his Rally de Portugal lead at the end of another close-fought day.
Saturday would be the longest day of the rally in terms of competitive distance with nine stages north-east of Porto totalling 145.88 competitive kilometres. These stages were generally softer and sandier than the harder, rockier tests already run to the south, but deep ruts would form for the second pass and heavy rain would make the surface extremely slippery at points.
Ogier started the day with a lead of 3.7 seconds over Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and responded to some initial pressure to increase his advantage to 8.1s after the morning’s first three stages.
The forecasted rain then arrived truly for the final stage of the morning, Paredes, and turned the top of the leaderboard upside down. Oliver Solberg, who had already taken a narrow stage win in the long Amarante test, excelled in the slippery conditions and vaulted from fourth overall to take the lead by 0.5s over Ogier, having previously been 18.6s behind.
The afternoon loop began dry and Ogier immediately reclaimed the lead with a stage win in the opening Felgueiras test, before Solberg then lost around 18s and three more positions with a front-right tyre off the rim in the ruts of Cabeceiras de Basto.
Ogier’s advantage remained a slim 3.9s going into the second pass of Amarante – the longest stage of the rally at 26.24 km – which took place in the wettest conditions seen so far. This time, the nine-time world champion produced a masterclass drive, going fastest by 11.2s to extend his lead to 16s. Another stage win followed in the second pass of Paredes, and after a very wet and muddy Lousada super special rounded out the day, his lead stands at 21.9s going into the final day.
Sami Pajari produced another strong day, winning the morning’s opening stage and closing to within 5.5s of the lead before Amarante 2, ultimately ending up third overall and within 3.9s of second-placed Neuville as he closes in on what would be a fifth consecutive podium finish.
Both Solberg and Elfyn Evans conceded time with a mistake during the tricky conditions of the afternoon and are separated by 8.6s in fourth and fifth overall respectively. Takamoto Katsuta is seventh, closing to within 11.5s of Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) by the end of the day.
GR Yaris Rally2 driver Teemu Suninen has moved to the front of a close WRC2 battle with a lead of just 0.9s, while Roope Korhonen runs third. TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto gained valuable experience through the mixed conditions and set the third-quickest Rally2 time in the tricky first pass through Paredes.
Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“This was a really challenging day with the wet and muddy conditions but all of our guys did a really good job to get through it. Even when it’s like this, it’s not so stressful to follow our drivers because I trust them and they know what they’re doing. Of course, small mistakes can happen to anyone in these conditions, but they did well. Seb, as the experienced champion that he is, knows how to drive in any conditions. He’s been able to make a bit of a gap now, but it has been a very good fight. Hyundai has been right there with us, and this makes a good competition for everyone to follow, and should make tomorrow very interesting as well.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“We’ve had a bit of everything in terms of conditions today. We knew that the grip here can be very inconsistent when it rains and that’s how it turned out. I’m really disappointed with how this afternoon went, especially in Amarante. I lacked confidence under braking and didn’t drive as well as I know I can in those conditions, so it’s been frustrating. We’ll look for some improvements tonight that can help us for tomorrow, and try to grab as many points as we can.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
“It’s been a good day for us overall. The morning had been good until this last stage, where I didn’t take enough risk and we lost a lot of time. In midday service we switched to more of a rain setup and this worked much better for the afternoon. Coming to Amarante with crazy conditions, it was so close behind that I knew I had to drive well and take some risks. We’ve got a bit of a gap now but not enough to feel comfortable, because tomorrow the weather can still be tricky and we’ll have to keep pushing.”
Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“It’s been a very tricky day. This morning was great, going from fourth to the lead, and then in the afternoon we went back from first to fourth again. It was disappointing to get the puncture in the second stage this afternoon and after that it was tough, with a half spin in a very narrow place where we had to reverse. There’s still a long day to come tomorrow and the weather can be tricky again, and we’ll keep trying until the end to take as many points as possible.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Today was overall better than yesterday for me but the conditions have been totally different. Still, I was much happier with the feeling in the car and the times were much better. I just tried to be clever, and tried to find something more that can work even better for me for tomorrow. It was a bit like Kenya in places with the mud and the standing water, but we made it through quite cleanly. Tomorrow the conditions could be just as tricky, but I’ll try to catch Fourmaux if I can.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“Today started really well with a stage win, and the morning generally was quite nice with fairly steady conditions. Then this afternoon the conditions were much more intense with a lot of rain and super slippery stages. Still, we managed to stay out of trouble and have consistent speed. I think we can be really happy to finish a day like this cleanly and in third place, and to even be a little bit closer to second, and tomorrow we’ll try to catch Thierry.”
End of day three (Saturday):
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 3h09m13.3s
2 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +21.9s
3 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +25.8s
4 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +49.6s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +58.2s
6 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m23.8s
7 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m35.3s
8 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3m44.7s
9 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +6m47.7s
10 Teemu Suninen/Janni Hussi (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9m17.8s
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