The Rally Portugal restarted this morning with the second stage and Kalle Rovanpera immediately wanted to make things clear. The 2-time reigning world champion won the 8.81 kilometer SS10 Felgueiras 1, a test with several hill descents, in which he managed to increase his margin over his direct rivals.
The leader of the event maintained almost the same pace as the best until the last intermediate time. From there until the finish line he made the difference, opening a margin of 4″2 over Ott Tanak, second in qualifying, and the pair of Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Ogier, who set the same time, of 5″7.
An important result for the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver, because he managed to increase his lead in the general classification to 6″7 over Sébastien Ogier, first of his pursuers, and 9″6 over Ott Tanak, who has now risen to third place after managed to overtake Takamoto Katsuta.
The Japanese driver from Toyota didn’t have a start to the day to forget, but he doesn’t seem to be able to keep up with the pace of the top three. At the moment he has a margin of 12.9″ over Neuville, but that doesn’t mean it won’t narrow as the day progresses.
Speaking of the World Championship leader, in this test he completed the overtaking of teammate Dani Sordo, climbing to fifth place in the general classification. Of course, it would have been better for him if this change had happened yesterday evening, so that he would have had a better starting position this morning. But this was not the case by just 2 tenths.
It will be difficult for the Belgian to recover positions with performance alone. It is likely that he will focus heavily on the Amarante, today’s longest race, to try to eat up precious seconds against Katsuta and try to attack fourth place this afternoon.
Behind Dani Sordo, now sixth, the positions have crystallized. Adrien Fourmaux is seventh, 15.7 seconds behind the Spaniard from Hyundai Motorsport. Elfyn Evans is almost 2 minutes behind the leader Rovanpera and Gregoire Munster now has three.
Oliver Solberg also gets off to a good start in WRC2, making a small break and increasing his lead to 10″2 over the first of his rivals, Citroen Racing driver Yohan Rosse. Gus Greensmith remains third, 5″1 behind second place.
WRC 2024 – Rally Portugal – Ranking after SS10
| Pos. | Pilot/navigator | Car | Time/detachment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rovanpera/Halttunen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 1h30’44”7 |
| 2 | Ogier/Landais | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +6″7 |
| 3 | Tanak/Jarveoja | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +9″6 |
| 4 | Katsuta/Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +10″9 |
| 5 | Neuville/Wydaeghe | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +23″8 |
| 6 | Sordo/Carrera | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +30″3 |
| 7 | Fourmaux/Coria | Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid | +46″0 |
| 8 | Evans/Martin | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +1’54″5 |
| 9 | Munster/Louka | Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid | +2’50″4 |
| 10 | Solberg/Edmondson | Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 | +4’01″7 |
#WRC #Rally #Portugal #SS10 #Rovanpera #starts #strong
