M-Sport World Rally Team driver Sebastien Ogier today won the Vodafone Rallye de Portugal, making his fifth win on the event and equalling the record set by Marku Alen 30 years before. The win propels the Frenchman further into the lead of the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship. Second overall was Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who climbs to second in the championship standings as a result, with team-mate Dani Sordo claiming the third podium position.
The final morning of action comprised four stages, beginning with the legendary Fafe stage and the infamous jump close to the finish line. Most drivers treated the first run through as a high-speed recce for the second run, the rally-closing Power Stage, since there are additional points on offer to the five fastest drivers.
However, there was an upset for Quentin Gilbert in WRC2, who's car landed badly after the jump and barrel-rolled, putting him out of the event. By the time the field had closed up after the delay in removing Gilbert’s car, the second and third stages were generally a case of drivers managing their speed and tyres to keep the best possible performance for the Power Stage.
The early leader of the Power Stage was Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi, putting in a superb performance in his debut in a world rally car. However, he was soon overhauled but did manage to claim fourth-fastest and two points on his debut, to add to the one he claims for finishing tenth. Elfyn Evans was third fastest, to add three points to the eight he takes for finishing sixth. However, it was Ott Tanak who went through fastest, adding five points to go some way to redress the balance after losing the lead on Saturday after hitting a bank and finally finishing fourth.
The pattern of WRC2 seemed to follow that of the main class, with Andreas Mikkelsen maintaining a healthy lead in the class, beginning the day with a margin of more than three minutes. Eric Camilli took a pair of stage wins while Pontus Tidemund and Teemu Suninen continued their battle. However, it would all turn around on the final, stage, the Power Stage. Mikkelsen rolled 1Km into the stage and although he reportedly got going again, stopped another 1Km later and was out of the rally. This promoted Tidemund to the class win, with Suninen a tantalising 11.2 seconds adrift after an amazing four-day battle. Simone Tempestini was third.
In WRC3, the crews were all given a notional time for the first stage of the day, as they drove it as a road section following Gilbert’s accident. However, it started badly for Nils Solans, third overnight, who was forced to stop on the road section to the first stage and make repairs to his car, arriving five minutes late and incurring a 50 second penalty.
As the crews approached the final stage, he was 54.8 seconds behind class leader Francisco Name, having taken the stage win and second-fastest on the two middle stages. In the final stage, Solans was again fastest but not by enough to take the win, finishing in second place behind Name with Enrico Brazzoli third.
The leading Portuguese driver was Miguel Campos, who finished 16th and fourth in WRC2.