WRC | Rally Portugal, SS13: Tanak punctures, Ogier returns to the lead

For a Stage 1 of the Portugal Rally in which there were no significant twists and turns, the first lap of Stage 2 instead continually upset everything, including the last special stage of the morning lap, the 16.09 kilometer Paredes 1, in which we were able to include yet another change in leadership of the race.

Ott Tanak, who entered qualifying first overall but with just 2 tenths of a second ahead of Sébastien Ogier, had to give up the lead due to a slow puncture on the right rear tire of his Hyundai i20 N Rally1.

At the end of the test, the Estonian claimed to have felt the problem from the first kilometres. This led him to lose 13″8 to Sébastien Ogier, winner of the race and now the new leader of the Rally Portugal with a 13″6 advantage over the Hyundai Motorsport driver.

There is no news behind the two contenders for success, at least as regards the Rally1 category. Thierry Neuville concluded the morning in third place, therefore in the podium area, after having recovered three positions in 4 tests thanks to the overtaking of his teammate Dani Sordo – now fourth – and the two retirements of Kalle Rovanpera and Takamoto Katsuta who arrived in PS11 and PS12 respectively.

For the World Championship leader this is a very good result, especially considering yesterday’s difficulties, in which he had to open all the special stages precisely by virtue of his position in the World Championship. Complementing the close to ideal situation is Elfyn Evans’ sixth place, almost 2 minutes behind him. The Welshman is his main pursuer in the World Championship, but he is facing a very complicated weekend due to a very low feeling with his GR Yaris Rally1.

Dani Sordo, fourth, completes the Top 5 with the first Ford Puma Rally1, that of Adrien Fourmaux, who is proving to be solid even if fast only at times. The Frenchman precedes Evans and the first Rally2s.

In this regard, WRC2 also had to take note of a change at the top of the general classification. Yohan Rossel was forced to stop in practice to replace a damaged tyre, thus losing not only the category leadership, but also the podium.

Gus Greensmith thanked him and now leads operations with a 45 second advantage over Nikolay Gryazin’s Citroen C3 Rally2. Josh McErlean rose to third place with the second Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 in the standings after the retirement of Oliver Solberg, who arrived on SS11 just as he was firmly in command of the WRC2.

The morning lap of the second stage at the Rally Portugal ends here. Today the drivers will be able to take advantage of the mid-day service to prepare the cars for the afternoon lap which will start with Special Stage 14, the 8.81 kilometer Felgueiras 2. The first car will enter the special at 3.35 pm Italian time.

WRC 2024 – Rally Portugal – Ranking after SS13