Sébastien Ogier holds a shock in a single day lead at Vodafone Rally de Portugal after Ott Tänak’s hopes of a long-awaited victory have been dashed by an influence steering failure late on Saturday afternoon.
Tänak had led the gravel fixture since Friday morning and hit again from a troublesome begin to this penultimate leg to win three consecutive phases and rebuild a double-digit benefit. Heading into the penultimate take a look at, Amarante 2, the Hyundai driver seemed firmly in management – however it all got here undone on the rally’s longest stage.
An influence steering subject struck midway via the 22.10km take a look at, forcing Tänak to wrestle his i20 N Rally1 to the end. He dropped over 45sec and relinquished the lead he had fought so exhausting to construct, tumbling to 3rd general within the course of.
Ogier, who had spent a lot of the day shadowing Tänak, abruptly discovered himself out entrance. The eight-time world champion now leads the rally by 27.6sec heading into Sunday’s six-stage finale and stands on the verge of a record-extending seventh Vodafone Rally de Portugal triumph.
“It’s not the way in which you wish to win any struggle,” mentioned Ogier. “We have been each pushing actually exhausting – that’s the sport. We tried to maintain the strain on, even when he was a bit faster. On the finish of the earlier stage, I really mentioned to my engineer, ‘Truthfully, something can occur – it’s tough on the market. He’s pushing actually exhausting, we have to preserve the strain on.’”
“I’m not blissful,” he continued. “I don’t wish to have a good time this manner. I simply hope he can nonetheless get better as many factors as attainable – it’s not over. Tomorrow is an extended day.”
Tänak mentioned: “It’s a part of the sport, I suppose. Very unlucky, however we gave the whole lot from our facet.”
Kalle Rovanperä moved as much as second, 8.5sec away from Tänak. The Toyota star had began the day in fourth however overtook Takamoto Katsuta through the morning and progressively pulled clear because the day progressed.
Katsuta’s tempo pale within the afternoon, and he dropped behind Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who climbed to fourth on the penultimate stage. The Belgian now trails Rovanperä by 17.0sec, with Katsuta an extra 2.2sec again in fifth.
Championship chief Elfyn Evans endured one other troublesome day and sits seventh general behind Sami Pajari. After dropping time as Friday’s highway opener, Evans struggled once more to discover a rhythm regardless of a greater beginning place on Saturday and now trails Pajari by 17.5sec.
Josh McErlean moved as much as eighth, edging previous M-Sport Ford colleague Grégoire Munster on the opening stage. The Irishman ended the day 28.5sec forward of their intra-team duel. Oliver Solberg rounded out the leaderboard in tenth and continued to dominate the FIA WRC2 class, sustaining a 50.1sec margin over Gus Greensmith.
In addition to topping the FIA WRC3 order, FIA Rally Star expertise detection programme member Taylor Gill leads FIA Junior WRC.
Vodafone Rally de Portugal, spherical 5 of the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship, concludes tomorrow (Sunday) with six phases over a aggressive distance of 72.16 kilometres.
