Three weeks after his success in Croatia, Sébastien Ogier added a new line to his list of achievements and a new record. Thanks to an exemplary performance over the entire weekend, the French driver won in Portugal for the sixth time, becoming the sole record holder ahead of Markku Allen (5 successes).
The eight-time world champion took the opportunity to reach a big milestone, 60 WRC successes, which was only reached by Sébastien Loeb (80) before him. Marcus Grönholm, third in this list, has half as many victories as Ogier. “I had no problem being tied with Markku Allen,” he joked at the finish, “but I had been asked for years when I was going to break the record, so here it is.” . »
But in Portugal, nothing was easy for the Toyota driver who took control of the rally on Saturday after his teammate Kalle Rovanperä went off the road. Knowing how to choose his moments to attack and widen the gap, he took advantage of a slow puncture from Ott Tänak (Hyundai) to build up a small cushion of seconds which he kept until the end. On Sunday, he also evaded the traps set by the Lusitanian morning fog to ensure his victory.
Once left behind on Saturday at the end of the afternoon (where the first points of the weekend are validated), Ott Tänak, who must think about catching up in the Championship, has mainly turned his attention towards the points of the “super Sunday” without really worrying about the final victory which brings nothing to the general classification. The Estonian finally took 2nd place and a total of 26 points in the Championship with his first place on Sunday and his second in the Power Stage.
Another great result for Adrien Fourmaux
In the title race, Thierry Neuville did an excellent job with his third place and his good Sunday, highlighted by the victory in the Power Stage. Taking advantage of the setbacks of Elfyn Evans, again hit by an engine problem in his Toyota Yaris on Sunday morning, the Belgian from Hyundai increased the gap with his runner-up in the Championship to 24 points now (the equivalent of his harvest in Portugal).
For Adrien Fourmaux, fourth at the finish, it was a paradoxical weekend since he achieved another superb result but fell one place in the Championship behind Tänak. Perhaps a blessing in disguise before heading to Sardinia at the end of the month, where sweeping plays a big role… Being one place further down the road could translate into seconds gained.
In WRC2, Nikolay Griazyn (Citroën) finished first in the category but chose not to score Championship points on this rally. The official victory therefore goes to the Spaniard Jan Solans who allows the Toyota Yaris Rally2 to win for the first time. Yohan Rossel (Citroën) only took fifth place after being hit with two one-minute penalties: firstly because the crew had not correctly put their harness back on after changing a wheel on a special stage; then for an early score on Sunday morning.
