Twelve Rally1s entered in the Rally of Portugal, a record since 2022

There will be people, lots of people for the Rally of Portugal, from May 15 to 18. For the second round on gravel of the season after the Safari Rally, the first on gravel terrain, there will be no fewer than 95 crews entered, ranging from Rally1 to Rally5! An impressive contingent and a record number of participants in the premier category: in fact, for the first time since 2022 and the introduction of the current mounts, there will be 12 Rally1 at the start of the Portuguese round. Unprecedented since the 2022 Rally of Catalonia.

Our biggest Rally1 entry since 2022 🤩#WRC | #RallydePortugal 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/DyXyG92nOL

— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) May 1, 2025

Among the twelve crews entered in Rally1, we obviously find the eight usual drivers from the three manufacturers, whether at Toyota (Evans, Rovanperä, Katsuta, Pajari), Hyundai (Neuville, Thank you, Fourmaux) and M-Sport (Munster, McErlean). To these must be added the presence of Sébastien Ogier who will be completing a second consecutive rally after that of the Canary Islands (2nd).

Above all, it's on the M-Sport side that we must look to understand why there are so many Rally1 entries in this Rally of Portugal. Indeed, there will be four Ford Pumas at the start on May 15: Martins Sesks, entered on a partial program, is making his return to the premier class three months after his appearance in Sweden. As for the last M-Sport representative, it's the Portuguese driver Diogo Salvi (55 years old) who will be at the controls of the fourth Ford Puma Rally1. Accustomed to participating in the Rally of Portugal in the WRC2 category, with a Skoda Fabia Rally2, the veteran will be making his debut in the premier class on home soil.

In addition to the Rally1s, there are 47 (!) Rally2s registered for this 2025 Rally of Portugal with some very good names: the Rossel brothers, Yohan and Léo, will be at the start on May 15th in their Citroën, as will Mathieu Franceschi (Toyota) and Pierre-Louis Loubet (Ford), who is making his return to WRC2 with M-Sport. Gus Greensmith (Skoda), Oliver Solberg (Toyota), Jan Solans (Toyota), Fabrizio Zaldivar (Skoda), Robert Virves (Skoda), Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Toyota) and many others will also be participating. Dani Sordo (Hyundai) and Kris Meeke (Toyota) will also contest the Rally of Portugal, but they are not registered for WRC2: the two veterans are entered in the Portuguese Rally Championship.

> The complete list of entries for the Rally of Portugal can be found here HERE.

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