Tanak hits a milestone, leads the way after tough WRC Rally Portugal Friday

Ott Tanak leads WRC Rally Portugal after a punishing opening leg on Friday, with just 7.0s splitting the Hyundai driver (above) and Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier after more than 90 miles of gravel action.

Tanak marked a personal milestone by reaching 400 FIA World Rally Championship special stage wins – the latest racked up in his i20 N Rally1 on the day’s final test, 12.51-mile Sever/Albergaria. The Estonian had snatched the lead from Thursday night super special winner Elfyn Evans’s Toyota on Friday morning’s opening stage and went on to win four of the day’s 10 stages in total.

Adrien Fourmaux matched factory teammate Tanak’s early pace and hit back with two stage wins of his own to close the gap to just two-tenths of a second by the midday remote service. But his challenge ended in the afternoon when he clipped a hidden rock at a hairpin, breaking the front-left steering on his i20 N Rally and retiring on the spot.

That briefly promoted Takamoto Katsuta’s GR Yaris Rally1 (painted silver instead of the usual black in an effort to keep in-car temperatures down in the Portuguese sun) to second, but it wasn’t long before his Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate and eight-time WRC champ, Ogier, moved ahead. The Frenchman had struggled with an overly soft setup in the morning, but made changes and found form in the repeated second loop, pulling 20.1s clear of Katsuta by day’s end.

Sebastien Ogier struggled in the morning loop, but dialed in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 to move up to second in the afternoon.

“If there were as many championship titles [as stage wins], it would be even better,” joked Tanak, who earned a single WRC title driving for Toyota in 2019. “But still, a nice number. It's been demanding today, especially the second loop. We couldn’t really find the sweet spot and we were struggling a bit. But the last two stages were clean, so that’s good.”

Kalle Rovanpera made it three Toyotas in the top four, ending the day just 1.2s behind Katsuta. The two-time champ, who’s returning to a full-time WRC program for 2025 and won last time out in the Canary Islands, admitted the surface felt more slippery than expected, but is now in position to eat into Toyota teammate Evans’s championship lead.

Evans is down in seventh after starting first on the road and being forced to “road sweep” for the cars behind – the price you pay for being the current point leader.

Ahead of the Welshman, who struggled for traction and slipped more than a minute behind the lead pace, are defending WRC champ Thierry Neuville’s Hyundai and Toyota Rally1 rookie Sami Pajari in fifth and sixth, respectively. Neuville was lucky to avoid damage after striking a bank on the morning’s opening stage. He recovered to end the leg just 4.4s behind Rovanpera.

Starting first on the road, WRC points leader Elfyn Evans struggled for grip in his GR Yaris as he played “road sweeper” for the cars behind.

Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean sit eighth and ninth for M-Sport Ford, but there was disappointment for the pre-event shakedown pacesetter Martins Sesks, whose day began to unravel with a wheel change on his Puma Rally 1 in the morning’s opening stage. Taking in only his second WRC start of 2025, the highly-touted Latvian’s troubles worsened when he picked up a three-minute time penalty later in the leg.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Oliver Solberg heads a record class entry after setting fastest class times in all but one of Friday’s stages (Citroen C3 driver Yohan Rossel being the one spoiler). A record 45 WRC2 crews were on the start line for Rally Portugal, but the Swede set the pace from the start in his GR Yaris Rally2.

Solberg, who sits 10th overall after his Friday charge, leads the Skoda Fabia RS of Nikolay Gryazin by 43.6s, with Gus Greensmith’s Skoda completing the class top three.     

Oliver Solberg dominated Rally Portugal’s record-breaking WRC2 field on Friday’s opening leg, setting fastest class time on all but one stage.

Saturday’s second leg features seven more tough gravel stages, covering 76.38 competitive miles – including two passes through the iconic 13.73-mile Amarante test.

WRC Rally Portugal, positions after Friday/Leg One, SS11
1 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1h41m26.2s
2 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +7.0s
3 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +27.1s
4 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +28.3s
5 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +32.7s
6 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m01.4s
7 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m09.0s

8 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m50.2s
9 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m54.3s

10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2 leader) +3m38.2s

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