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) hit a concrete wall 20 meters after the start of the fifth special! An extremely rare error on the part of the nine-time world champion which broke the suspension arm of the right rear wheel.

« 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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The figurehead of Malcolm Wilson's clan remained at the dock and let the Toyota who were going to take over the field. Already in good shape in the morning, Elfyn Evans hit the nail on the head in the afternoon. The outgoing double world vice-champion avoided the pitfalls of punctures despite an increasingly rutted surface.

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) railed against a transmission and wheel problem. The Belgian is rejected almost 2 minutes, just like 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: