TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team holds the top three places after a close-fought Friday at the Rally de Portugal, where Kalle Rovanperä leads team-mate Sébastien Ogier by just one second with Takamoto Katsuta third.
After Thursday night’s opening super special in Figueira da Foz, crews faced their first full day of stages in central Portugal, taking on two loops of four tests around Arganil – which hosted a mid-day tyre fitting zone in place of a full service. High temperatures and rocky gravel roads made it a demanding day for cars and drivers, but the leading competitors remained covered by only a handful of seconds on the leaderboard.
From TGR-WRT’s strong line-up of four drivers, it was Katsuta who made the brightest start. He took a stage win in the day’s first test and ended the morning loop in the lead by 2.9s over second-placed Thierry Neuville (Hyundai).
Rovanperä was third with Ogier fifth and the two world champions would be the strongest in the afternoon. Rovanperä – aiming for his third consecutive Portugal win – took over the lead from Katsuta in SS6 by just 0.1s, a margin he extended to 1s with a stage win in SS8. Ogier, targeting a record sixth win on the event, was fastest in both SS6 and SS9, impressively winning the latter by 3.2s to climb from fourth to second overall.
Katsuta remains in the podium places, just 3.7s from Ogier and 0.7s in front of Ott Tänak (Hyundai).
For Elfyn Evans it was a tougher day while experiencing some of the most slippery conditions running second on the road. With a tyre off the rim in SS7 contributing to the time lost, he is eighth overall.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It has been surprising just how close the fight has been today, considering how tough Friday here in Portugal can be, but it has also been really nice to see. It was great to secure the top three places at the end of the day, especially considering the road order that gives us for tomorrow. Of course we expect that Kalle and Seb can be strong here, and we can also see a really positive step made by Takamoto: we know his potential and his speed and he has been able to maintain that through the day, so his performance has really delighted us. Overall we can be really satisfied with the performance of the team, but it’s still close behind and I’m sure it will remain a tight fight tomorrow. For Elfyn, it was one of those days where things start going in the wrong direction and then multiply, but the main thing now is to focus on getting through tomorrow with a focus on Sunday and maximising the points.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It was a great battle today. It was nice to finish it fighting with Seb and there are many drivers still close behind us. I can’t be fully happy with the day as it was a bit of a struggle in places but we had a clean day and I think we made the most out of it. With no mid-day service today, there are still some things we can work on with the car tonight. Hopefully we can find a bit more feeling and pace and tomorrow can be even better. There’s going to be another long day of pushing ahead and we need to be sharp already from the first stage.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It wasn’t the day we hoped for today. We were missing the ultimate feeling behind the wheel and with that came some time loss, and then we had a few different issues this afternoon on top of that. To lose the pacenote book was not ideal but it’s one of those things; Scott is well-prepared and had a backup on his phone, he dealt with it remarkably well and it wasn’t disturbing things too much. In terms of the overall result, it’s looking like a difficult weekend for us now but we have to keep going. It’s important to try and find a good feeling with the car and be ready to fight for some points on Sunday.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s been very close today and exciting for everyone to follow. It was surprising to see the conditions so consistent for everybody in the morning and still the gaps are closer than we usually see on gravel. The feeling was a bit better this afternoon with a better rhythm, and our tyre choice was more aggressive with only one spare and that probably helped our speed. We needed to push in the last stage after an issue with the hybrid in the previous one, as we knew our position tonight was critical for the starting place tomorrow. We could produce a good time, and now we need to keep pushing.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It has not been an easy day. This morning we were leading but still I wasn’t completely happy with my driving. In the afternoon it was better, I tried to make less mistakes and it went well. I was lacking a bit of pace in some stages, but overall I should be happy because we are in third place and not too far from the lead. It was so tight between all the drivers, competing against world champions and with everybody pushing, so it’s been a fun day. Tomorrow will be more challenging with some different conditions but I will try to enjoy the driving and keep pushing.”
End of day two (Friday):
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 1h25m00.4s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1.0s
3 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +4.7s
4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +5.4s
5 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +17.9s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +18.1s
7 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +31.8s
8 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m43.2s
9 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +2m27.3s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3m42.1s
(Results as of 19:00 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
Saturday is the longest day of the rally, featuring 145.02 competitive kilometres. A loop of four stages in the Cabreira mountains to the north-east of Porto is run twice either side of mid-day service. It includes the returning Montim test as well as Amarante, the longest stage of the season so far at 37.24 km. Another super special stage at the Lousada rallycross circuit runs in the evening.
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