Despite a "good afternoon", Thierry Neuville was unable to catch Sébastien Ogier

Pointing this Saturday evening at 21,9 seconds Sébastien Ogier, always in the lead and comfortable in the muddy sections, Thierry Neuville is far from having missed his day at Rally from Portugal. The pilot Hyundai, who, like his teammates, has been struggling since the start of the season driving an i20 that is not the fastest Rally1 car on the grid, to put it mildly, has found, like his teammate Adrien fourmaux a machine much better suited to local requirements.

While the car has been performing much better since the start of the weekend, the 2024 world champion admitted that he still lacks a bit of confidence in the really muddy sections, which allowed Ogier to extend his lead, and another ToyotaSami Pajari's team came within four seconds of each other.

"We had hoped to be as fast as Sébastien in the afternoon, but it simply wasn't possible."he explained to us. “We gave it our all, we had a good afternoon, we tried to improve the settings a little more to find performance but unfortunately we didn't find it in the difficult conditions. Sébastien was able to widen the gap in these conditions and especially in muddy sections where we lack front-end grip and when that happens, it takes away a bit of confidence.”

While the most experienced drivers are currently at the forefront of this fifth round of the season, youth hasn't given up yet, with Pajari in third place and Oliver Solberg also in fourth, having won a particularly difficult Monte Carlo Rally earlier this year due to the harsh winter conditions. The Belgian driver doesn't see this as a victory of experience over youth, at least not yet!

“The young drivers are really coming up fast! It always surprises me to see how young they are and how high the pace is. Of course, there are ups and downs sometimes, and experience can compensate from time to time, but Pajari is there, he’s been on the podium for several rallies, he was in contention for the win until just now, and he’s still in contention for the podium. The competition is fierce behind him, Taka (Katsuta) is also improving, and we’re also seeing Adrien (Fourmaux) who is extremely fast with his experience.”

ALSO READ > “We wanted to react”: Sébastien Ogier, leading tonight in Portugal, made a strong statement