Hyundai "incredibly competitive" in Portugal according to Abiteboul

Fifth meeting of the season in WRC, Rally Portugal has kept all its promises. If Sébastien Ogier won for the 7th time in his career, allowing Toyota to sign a fifth success in as many rounds in 2025, Hyundai clearly had bad luck on his side. And will have to wait before opening his counter this year.

So it started on Friday afternoon, whenAdrien fourmaux was in the lead after securing two stage wins earlier in the morning. Indeed, on SS8, the Frenchman broke his front-left suspension. This put him out of the fight for victory for good. Although he restarted on Saturday and Sunday morning, he ultimately retired before the Power Stage due to a cooling problem on his car.

But that's not all. As we were heading towards a duel between the eight-time world champion and Ott Tänak for victory, everything changed again on Saturday afternoon in SS17. Indeed, the Estonian suffered a sudden power steering failure. Losing 45″ at the finish of this stage, the die was cast. Ogier and Toyota only had to deliver on Sunday morning to win.

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"We have been a force to be reckoned with" in Portugal

But Hyundai didn't leave Portugal empty-handed. Ott Tänak ultimately took second place overall ahead of another Toyota driver, Kalle Rovanpera. He also earned the five points awarded to the best driver on Super Sunday and the five points for the Power Stage. In addition, the Belgian Thierry Neuville ranked fourth.

Team Principal of the South Korean team, Cyril Abiteboul prefers to remember only the positive. “This weekend marked a return to the level we were expecting. We were incredibly competitive throughout the event. Ott even led brilliantly. He was impeccable, leading 15 stages and winning 12 scratch races. He was the man to beat. He deserved the victory after not making a single misstep throughout the weekend.”, admits the Frenchman in a press release. 

"Adrien was also a contender for victory before his suspension failure, which was beyond his control. And which shouldn't have happened. We regret that Ott's reliability issue handed the victory to Toyota. But the whole team can be proud of their efforts this weekend."He says.

"It was a tough event, with long days. But we were a force to be reckoned with in Portugal. We're on an incredible run going into Rally Italia-Sardinia, where we'll be aiming for victory.", finally launches the boss of the South Korean team.

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