WRC | Rally Portugal, SS14-15: Rovanpera sees success

4 victories out of 7 special stages today, 7 scratches out of 15 overall stages at the Rally of Portugal. This is the score with which Kalle Rovanpera closed the second stage of the Portuguese event, getting ever closer to what would be his first victory of the 2023 WRC.

In the last 2 special stages of the day Rovanpera simply managed an advantage that is close to the minute over the first of his rivals, Dani Sordo, who is instead concentrated and in full fight to defend second position from the onslaught of his teammates.

Thanks to two stage victories in the last two stages, Sordo succeeded in his intent, thus bringing his advantage over Thierry Neuville to 11.1 seconds, now third after overtaking his teammate Esapekka Lappi.

However, the Belgian and the Finn will meet tomorrow to battle again for the lowest step of the podium. Between the two there are just 2″3 in favor of the 34-year-old from Sankt-Vith. The situation, however, could also be decided at the table by a possible – not to mention probable – team game.

Hyundai Motorsport could give priority to Neuville as best placed in the fight for the Drivers’ World Championship. the gaps with those chasing the 3 i20 N Rally1s would make it possible to make reality what, to date, is only a possibility. Tomorrow morning, or perhaps before the Power Stage, we will know what Cyril Abiteboul has decided on the matter.

Ott Tanak continues to be M-Sport’s only bulwark after Pierre-Louis Loubet retired this morning due to a driving mistake on SS9. However, the Estonian is very far from his rivals and, if nothing changes up front, he will finish with a not very exciting fifth place, but precious for recovering points against Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans.

In WRC2 Oliver Solberg secured victory in the last two races of the day, in which he managed to detach his first and only rival, teammate Gus Greensmith. Third position clawed this afternoon by Andreas Mikkelsen, after a wholehearted comeback and excellent times to give Skoda and the TokSport team a splendid hat-trick.

Honorable mention for the unfortunate Adrien Fourmaux and Teemu Suninen. Both held back by punctures yesterday, today they showed that they have an interesting pace at the wheel of an updated Ford Fiesta Rally2 and the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 respectively.

The second stage of the Rally of Portugal ends here. The event will resume tomorrow morning with SS16, the 11.05 km Paredes. The first car will enter the special at 08:05 Italian time.

Rally Portugal – WRC 2023 – Classification after SS15