WRC 2026 Rd.6 Day 2 | 2026 | PRESS RELEASE | WRC

Rally de Portugal: Day 2 Ogier finishes tight Friday fight out front for TGR-WRT

2026.05.08 (Fri)

Sébastien Ogier leads the Rally de Portugal for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team after a tight fight across a demanding first full day of gravel stages.

Car 1 (Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais)

Following the opening three stages on Thursday, the action remained in central Portugal on Friday for a total of seven stages and 96.22 competitive kilometres. While most of the roads had been part of the rally route for many years, the majority were being run in the opposite direction to usual. There was also no opportunity for a full service until the cars returned north to Porto at the end of the day, with just a remote service held in the middle of the day.

Sami Pajari made the strongest start to the morning, winning the first two stages as he climbed from sixth to second overall across the opening loop, closing to within 7.7 seconds of the lead.

Ogier was just 0.3s further back arriving into the remote service, where he made changes to the setup of his GR YARIS Rally1 to return with improved feeling and speed to the afternoon’s stages. He claimed three consecutive stage wins as he moved to the front of the overall order, but it remains close at the front, with second-placed Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) only 3.7s adrift.

Pajari continued to show good pace with the second-fastest time in SS8, and despite a spin in SS9 he remains in the podium positions in third overall, 15.2s from the lead.

Overnight leader Oliver Solberg slipped from first to fifth during the morning, and had an off-road moment in SS8, but recovered to end the day strongly in fourth place. He was just 0.9s from the stage win in SS10, closing to within 1.2s of Pajari.

Championship leader Elfyn Evans faced another day of sweeping loose gravel running first on the road but remains in fifth overall, with Takamoto Katsuta two places further back in seventh.

GR Yaris Rally2 driver Roope Korhonen ended the day second in a close fight in the WRC2 category, 3.7s from the lead, with Teemu Suninen only 2.8s further back in fourth. TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto was climbing the order up to 13th in the Rally2 field before an incident in the day’s final stage led him to concede three minutes.

Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“This was another interesting day to follow with a lot changing from one stage to another. The competition has been close, just as we expected, but it seems like our guys have been gradually getting more confidence and more pace. It’s not easy to make big changes with only a remote service, but Seb certainly found a good step this afternoon to take the lead. Sami has again been showing great pace, and Oliver is not far behind either. It’s all still quite close, and with rain being predicted for the next days, anything can still happen.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s been an OK day today. We weren’t especially fast, but that was to be expected with our road position. The order had more of an effect in some stages than others. This morning it wasn’t so bad, but it was a bit worse this afternoon as some places dried out more. Still, we had a clean drive with no mistakes and let’s see what the weather’s like tomorrow. There’s a chance of rain which could help keep things open, but our road position should also be better even if it’s dry.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
“I’m happy to be leading at the end of the day. It had been a difficult start to the rally for us. Like yesterday, I was struggling with the balance this morning and couldn’t really drive as I wanted, but we managed to change the setup during the remote service, making some adjustments with the suspension, and that helped us find better pace. We can be happy with that but it’s only a small lead and from tomorrow the weather can change and become trickier, so there are still two big days ahead of us.”

Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“Today has been a tricky day. It wasn’t easy to find the right feeling with the car. When the road was slippery I struggled to find confidence, but when there was more grip it was better. We also made a small mistake that led to quite a big moment: the front of the car bottomed out on some bedrock and that launched us off the road. We could have been closer to the lead without that, but we just need to keep going.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“This morning I was still struggling with the feeling. Of course, our road position was not ideal but Elfyn was able to do a good job in front of us and we couldn’t match his pace. We tried to change what we could on the car setup in the remote service and the afternoon was better, and I know how we can improve things further for tomorrow. The weather conditions could be tricky, but I’m hoping that can help us too.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It has been quite a nice day for us. I’m especially happy with how the morning went. The feeling in the car was much better than yesterday, the driving felt more natural, and the times were good. Conditions were drier on the second pass so there was more cleaning, and a couple of incidents lost us a few seconds. Still, we are in the fight with two days to go and only 15s from the lead, so we can be happy for the moment.”

End of day two (Friday):
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 1h28m25.2s
2 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3.7s
3 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +15.2s
4 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +16.4s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +28.1s
6 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +34.3s
7 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +50.1s
8 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m23.3s
9 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m20.7s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale) +4m34.8s
(Results as of 17:00 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?
Saturday is the longest day of the rally in terms of competitive distance with 145.88 kilometres to be driven across a total of nine stages. A loop of four tests north-east of Porto is driven twice either side of mid-day service, before a super special stage at the Lousada rallycross circuit ends the day.