81 cars at the start in Portugal, André Villas-Boas in the game

Toyota, M-Sport Ford, Hyundai will obviously be at the heart of the Portuguese confrontation (May 21-23) for the first dirt round of World Rally Championship WRC.

The entry list for the Lusitanian event will indeed see the usual official drivers of the three manufacturers competing for victory, Adrien fourmaux and Renaud Jamoul extending the adventure with the Ford Fiesta WRC from M-Sport Ford after their brilliant Croatian performance, and Dani sordo returning to the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC, with his new co-driver Borja Rozada.

To complete this picture, the two WRC2 and WRC3 fields will be full with 12 WRC2s, including the Citroën C3 Rally2 for Eric Camilli, while Yohan Rossel and Nicolas Ciamin (Citroën C3 Rally2) will defend the French colors in WRC3.

In the middle of this peloton of 37 Rally2, the presence of André Villas-Boas is to be emphasized. The former coach of Olympique de Marseille as well as Chelsea and FC Porto, already involved in the Dakar in 2018 and lined up at the start of Rali Vieira do Minho earlier in the year, will come to confront the high level on a Citroën C3 Rally2.

Eight Ford Fiesta Rally4s will also be entered in the Junior WRC. The complete list of entrants can be found here.