Evans and Rovanperä in the fight, Loeb and Ogier still struggling in Portugal

It was expected, it was not missed. The head of Rally of Portugal 2022 is played internally in the clan of Toyota Gazoo Racing this Saturday May 21. At the end of the morning loop, Elfyn Evans preserved an advantage of 18″4 over her colleague and leader of the World Rally Championship (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) took care of overtaking Dani Sordo (Hyundai) just before returning to the service park to gain third place… more than a minute away! The Spaniard has been a step below the Japanese since the start of the rally. Disabled by a transmission problem on Friday, Thierry Neuville slowly but surely grabs positions. The Belgian finds himself fifth.

New punctures punctuated this start of the stage, mainly on the side of M-Sport Ford. Gus Greensmith and 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: