WRC
Evans and Rovanperä in the fight, Loeb and Ogier still struggling in Portugal
Kalle Rovanperä attacks in Portugal! © DPPI / P. Maria
It was expected, it was not missed. The head of Rally du Portugal 2022 se joue en interne dans le clan du Toyota Gazoo Racing ce samedi 21 mai. À l’issue de la boucle matinale, Elfyn Evans a préservé un avantage de 18″4 sur son collègue et leader du Championnat du monde des rallyes (WRC), Kalle Rovanperä. He was faster during three of the four morning stages but the final sector, the longest of this fourth round of the season, allowed the Welshman to recover his health.
The two teammates dumped the competition. Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) s’est occupé de déborder Dani Sordo (Hyundai) juste avant le retour au parc d’assistance pour le gain de la troisième place… à plus d’une minute ! L’Espagnol évolue un ton en-dessous du Japonais depuis le début du rallye. Handicapé par un souci de transmission vendredi, Thierry Neuville slowly but surely grabs positions. The Belgian finds himself fifth.
De nouvelles crevaisons ont émaillé ce début d’étape, principalement du côté de M-Sport Ford. Gus Greensmith et Adrien fourmaux had to replace tires in poor condition. Author of a poor choice of tires worn on hard surfaces, Pierre-Louis Loubet spun but continued his journey in sixth place as the best representative of Malcolm Wilson's team.
We will never see Sébastien again Loeb (M-Sport Ford) this Saturday. The nine-time world champion stopped on the road between the first two special stages of the day due to a loss of power. The Frenchman, leader on Friday lunchtime before hitting a concrete wall, should return to Rally 2 once again on Sunday.
Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) for its part committed an unusual driving error. A rock positioned on an outside bend sent him onto the shoulder of the road. Forced to wait for all the Rally1 hybrids to pass to exit from below, the Gapençais then suffered a mechanical problem before SS12.
#RallydePortugal SS11 @SebOgier done and dusted pic.twitter.com/zK3bNy2qDd
— Valmar Viisel (@paddocknews) May 21, 2022
In WRC2, Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda) was forced to retire due to engine failure. The defending champion will observe from a distance the fight between Teemu Suninen (Hyundai), Yohan Rossel (Citroën) and Oliver Solberg (Hyundai). The latter was penalized 20” for leaving the service park late. As for the Frenchman, he is only around fifteen seconds behind Suninen.
The Rally will start at 15:38 p.m. Four special stages will be followed in live text on AUTOhebdo.fr.
ALSO READ > Loeb recounts his Friday outing
Ranking after SS12:
Medhi Casaurang
Passionate about the history of motorsport across all disciplines, I learned to read thanks to AUTOhebdo. At least that's what my parents tell everyone when they see my name inside!
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