TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team continues to lead the Rally de Portugal with one day to go, with Sébastien Ogier taking over at the top on a day of mixed fortunes for the team.
Saturday was the longest day of the rally with 145.02 competitive kilometres to be driven on classic stages north-east of Porto.
After a close-fought Friday, Kalle Rovanperä began the day leading team-mate Ogier by just one second, and increased his lead to 6.7s in the first stage of the morning. Unfortunately, his charge would come to an abrupt end on the following test when he ran wide and clipped a tree stump, sending his car onto its side. Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen were unhurt and will be able to return under restart rules tomorrow.
Takamoto Katsuta began the day in third position overall but would sadly join Rovanperä on the sidelines after sustaining damaged rear suspension when he hit a bank in SS12. He too will restart tomorrow.
Ogier meanwhile gained the rally lead with a stage win in SS11, briefly conceding first position in SS12 to Ott Tänak (Hyundai) by 0.2s, before an impressive time in SS13 helped him to take an advantage of 13.6s back to mid-day service.
The afternoon would be the longest loop of the rally with tyre management a key factor, and although Ogier conceded some time across the first two stages, he would regain it with stage wins in the second passes of Amarante (the longest stage of the season so far at 37.24 km) and Paredes. After the side-by-side Lousada super special that rounded out the day, his lead over Tänak stands at 11.9s.
Recovering places after losing time on a tough Friday, Elfyn Evans reached the end of Saturday in sixth position overall and will look to secure more points towards his championship challenge on Super Sunday, where up to 12 points are available.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“After a very good Friday it’s certainly been more mixed for the team today. It was a bit of a shock to lose Kalle and Taka from the fight this morning, but the competition has been intense and when you try to push more and take time, mistakes can happen – especially when the grip levels are changing. At the same time, Seb could keep up the battle and we can be very pleased tonight that he was able to finish Saturday at the top of the leaderboard: hopefully he can finish there tomorrow afternoon as well and secure another victory. Elfyn, after his problems yesterday, did a solid job today, thinking about the championship, driving consistently and collecting good points. Now everything is open going into Sunday with a lot of points available if you can do a good day.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“This morning started well. We definitely had a better feeling today with the car setup and could do a good time in the first stage. But then in the second one I just missed my braking point in a fairly straightforward place and we went off. There was a bit of confusion with the pacenote in the previous corner and I was maybe still thinking about that and missed the braking point. But it was my mistake in the end and it’s a big disappointment – especially when we started strongly, and I think it could have been a good day for us. Now we’ll try to do our best for the team tomorrow.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“Today was always going to be difficult with our road position. It was tricky to make up any places on pace alone, so we were mainly trying to learn and find a better feeling with the car, playing with a few things in the setup and trying to put something better together for tomorrow. Some things were improved, some things not so much and we were still struggling with the balance. Our road position should at least be a bit better tomorrow so there’s an opportunity there and we need to try our best.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s been a good day for us. It was a tricky one: we didn’t expect so many things to happen this morning, and unfortunately for our team we lost two cars. But I was happy with my consistency and I was able to push in some key moments to make a bit of a difference. This afternoon was very demanding. In the first two stages I lost a bit of ground but I planned to push on Amarante and luckily it worked well for us and we managed to create a bit more of a gap again. Now we have to finish the job tomorrow: the gap is not enough for us to relax. There are still a lot of kilometres and some new sections.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Today’s stages were a bit more sandy like we expected. Still, the car was working well and it was very nice to drive. I tried to manage the pace in the first two stages but was not really in a good rhythm. Then in the third stage I pushed from the beginning, I felt very good and like everything was under control. But in one place I slightly lost the line and went a bit wide and hit the bank on the outside. Right now it’s very disappointing because I had the pace, it was looking good and I still had room to push more. It’s hard to accept but this is rallying, so I just need to understand what I did wrong and then move on. We still have tomorrow and we will keep pushing.”
End of day three (Saturday):
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 3h01m55.8s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +11.9s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m11.4s
4 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m25.6s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +1m32.9s
6 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +3m23.8s
7 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) +9m25.5s
8 Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9m35.2s
9 Josh McErlean/James Fulton (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m43.2s
10 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroën C3 Rally2) +9m46.8s
TBC Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1h10m04.4s
TBC Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1h19m42.0s
(Results as of 21:00 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
Sunday features 62.18 competitive kilometres with two passes each through Cabeceiras de Basto and the famous Fafe test, which will host the rally-ending Power Stage.
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