Elfyn Evans survives the first stage of the Rally Portugal

The second loop from Friday afternoon to Rally of Portugal 2022 has completely shaken up the established order. Between piloting errors and an avalanche of punctures, the peloton fragmented under the Portuguese heat.

Starting in the lead thanks to perfect control of his tires in the morning, Sébastien Loeb (M-Sport Ford) a percuté un mur en béton 20 mètres après le départ de la cinquième spéciale ! Une erreur rarissime de la part du nonuple champion du monde qui cassait le bras de suspension de la roue arrière droite.

« In the first turn, which was a left on asphalt which closed, he said, with the hard tires there was a little less grip than I expected. As soon as we entered, the car started to slide. There was a lot of gravel on the outside which didn't help to regain grip. A wall started right where the curve closed and we hit it. »

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La figure de proue du clan de Malcolm Wilson restait à quai et laisser passer les Toyota qui allaient prendre du champ. Déjà en forme le matin, Elfyn Evans a enfoncé le clou l’après-midi. Le double vice-champion du monde sortant a évité les embuches des crevaisons malgré une surface de plus en plus défoncée.

The Welshman is ahead of his teammate and general classification leader Kalle Rovanperä this Friday evening. “At one point it felt more like a lottery, recognized the bearer of number 33. But we still had to continue to want to be the fastest. You can always say that you can go faster but I don't know if I could have been there in this position tonight. »

Within Toyota Gazoo Racing, one major absentee should be noted: Sébastien Ogier. On pace in the morning, the Gapençais suffered a litany of punctures, which went so far as to cause him to be voluntarily removed from the race due to a lack of spare tires!

Another leading host of the WRC, Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) a pesté contre un souci de transmission et de roue. Le Belge est rejeté à près de 2 minutes, tout comme Craig Breen et Adrien fourmaux (M-Sport Ford), which aims to reach the finish line safely after three successive retirements.

Free of problems, Dani Sordo (Hyundai) relied on a senatorial train to patiently move up the hierarchy. The Spaniard is third despite this being his first stint behind the wheel of a Rally1 hybrid in 2022. He is ahead of Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) and Gus Greensmith (M-Sport Ford).

Pierre-Louis Loubet (M-Sport Ford) is behind by more than a minute but this gap does not reflect the accuracy of his driving and his pure rhythm. The Frenchman narrowly missed a scratch time before going too wide of the road and hitting the side of the road.

On Saturday, the second stage will start at 8:38 a.m. Seven special stages will be on the program and can be followed in live text on AUTOhebdo.fr.

Ranking Rally Portugal 2022 – Stage 1: