WRC | Rally Portugal, PS2: Katsuta surprise. Neuville leader

The Rally Portugal restarted this morning after the SS1 held last night in front of the Coimbra crowd and did so with one of the most insidious stages of the entire programme, the 18.15 kilometer Mortagua 1.

On a surface that the riders found damp, at least in the many shaded areas, the PS2 had some surprises in store. The first of these is undoubtedly Takamoto Katsuta, author of the best time in 11’30″4 which takes him to second position in the general classification.

The Japanese driver from Toyota Gazoo Racing, despite not being among the first to enter testing and therefore benefiting from a more compact surface due to the humidity and therefore favorable to the leaders, did better than everyone else, beating Thierry by 1.2 seconds. Neuville.

The Belgian himself is the second surprise of the test. Starting first, therefore the underdog because on a dirt road you are forced to clean the surface, he was able to take advantage of the humidity that had settled on the ground during the night and was still present due to the many shaded areas to seize a very important second half.

In fact, the Hyundai Motorsport driver remains at the top of the general classification of the event, despite maintaining just 8 tenths of an advantage over Katsuta. As for the rest of the rivals, however, they all lost to the World Championship leader. The next tests, however, should guarantee them the opposite situation, with Neuville losing many seconds to those who start from behind.

Third time for Ott Tanak, who, despite several driving difficulties due to a less than ideal feeling with the i20 N Rally1, still did well enough to get in behind his teammate and maintain third place in the general classification.

Elfyn Evans closed the gap to Neuville in the test, but is now 7 seconds behind in the overall. Good performance by Adrien Fourmaux, fifth in the special stage but behind in the general classification with the first Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid in the standings.

The last surprises of the special – on the negative side – are the two most recent WRC world champions, namely Kalle Rovanpera and Sébastien Ogier. The Finn achieved the same time as Adrien Fourmaux, 5.7 seconds behind Katsuta, while Ogier did worse, finishing 6.3 seconds behind.

Gregoire Munster paid dearly for his inexperience at the wheel of a Rally1, finishing 28 seconds behind the author of the fastest time of the test, while Dani Sordo, who hasn’t raced a Rally1 in the WRC for several months, took 12 seconds.

As for the WRC2, Oliver Solberg pulled the rabbit out of the hat by signing an absolutely outstanding performance with the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of the TokSport team. The Norwegian preceded the former category leader, Yohan Rossel, by 7.3 seconds and the second Citroen C3 Rally2, driven by Nikolay Gryazin, by over 16 seconds.

WRC 2024 – Rally Portugal – Ranking after PS2