After winning the day’s opening stage, the Frenchman then looked on the verge of retirement when his car caught fire on the stop line of the morning’s third test, Arganil 1. Just 1.3s blanketed the three drivers at the end of the day, with Loubet edging Lappi in the super special to take fourth overall by a scant 0.4s.įourth was well deserved for Loubet. The Belgian reclaimed the final podium spot in the leg-ending Figueira da Foz super special, leapfrogging Esapekka Lappi in the third of the Hyundais and M-Sport Ford youngster Pierre-Louis Loubet in the process.
Sordo’s Hyundai teammate Thierry Neuville finished the day third, 15.2s behind.
We were fast, but we also took care of the car and the tires.” “Lots of cleaning (of the road surface by the early-starting cars), but still we did a steady day. “It has been a really good day,” said Rovanpera. The 22-year-old Finn eased ahead of Sordo, who’d inherited the top spot when Ott Tanak’s Ford Puma Rally1 sustained wheel damage, in the fourth of the day’s special stages, Lousa 2, and extended his advantage further when the Spaniard overshot a junction in the penultimate stage. Rovanpera was plagued by excessive understeer in the opening two stages, but setup adjustments later in the morning transformed his car. While several of his rivals faltered, reigning WRC champ Rovanpera won three of the eight special stages in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 (above) to head Sordo’s Hyundai i20 N Rally1 by 10.7s after more than 75 miles of action during which three different drivers led. Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera mastered a brutal opening leg on WRC Rally Portugal to head Hyundai rival Dani Sordo overnight.Ī thrilling fight in the morning became a matter of survival in the afternoon as heat, dust and punishing rock-strewn roads took a heavy toll in the fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
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