Forty-seven teams have entered the WRC2 category at the 58th Vodafone Rally of Portugal, in addition to several leading non-registered crews who will be chasing points in the Portuguese Championship.
Frenchman Yohan Rossel has made the perfect start to his WRC2 challenge with victories in Monte-Carlo and Gran Canaria. Those two wins have netted the PH Sport Citroën C3 Rally2 driver 50 points and given him a 15-point cushion over Rally Sweden WRC2 winner Oliver Solberg, who won on the icy and snowy surfaces for a third consecutive year.
Rossel dominated the opening round in the south of France and then led from start-to-finish and won 13 of the 18 special stages in Gran Canaria to finish nearly half a minute in front of Spaniard Alejandro Cachón.
Briton Gus Greensmith began his title challenge at the Kenyan Safari Rally and secured the win with his RaceSeven-prepared Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for a second year. That success and a fine sixth overall lifted him into third in the title race, two points ahead of Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zaldivar.
Zaldivar collected valuable points in Sweden and finished third in Kenya behind Greensmith and Jan Solans – the Spaniard rolled on the final morning. The Paraguayan also has an early two-point lead over Léo Rossel in the WRC2 Challenger Championship with his Toksport WRT Škoda.
Strength in depth across both the WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger categories is staggering. Kajetan Kajetanowicz began his WRC2 Challenger campaign in Kenya and the Pole led WRC2 for a short period before dropping back to collect eight WRC2 points. He will be one to watch on the Portuguese gravel with his Orlen-backed Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
The list of potential front-runners also includes the defending FIA Junior WRC champion Romet Jürgenson (Ford) and Rally Sweden WRC2 runner-up Roope Korhonen (Toyota), in addition to Lauri Joona (Škoda), Robert Virves (Škoda), Marco Bulacia (Toyota), three-time Rally of Portugal winner Armindo Araújo (Škoda) and Georg Linnamaë (Toyota).
Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet returns to the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team to begin his challenge for honours in a Ford Fiesta Rally2. After a six-month sabbatical from rallying, the former Ford Puma Rally1 driver comfortably won April’s Rallye Capital do Queijo in the Azores in a Citroën.
The list of non-registered drivers is equally as impressive and includes former WRC stars Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke, Nikolay Gryazin and the Portuguese trio of Gonçalo Henriques, Ricardo Teodósio and José Pedro Fontes.
Sordo claimed seven podium finishes in Portugal during his long career driving for the Citroën and Hyundai factory teams, while Meeke won the event outright for the Citroën Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team in 2016.
Teams complete their reconnaissance of the event’s 24 special stages on Wednesday before finalising their race set-ups on the traditional 5.72km Baltar shakedown stage on Thursday morning.
2025 FIA WRC2 Championship – positions after round 4:
1. Yohan Rossel (FRA) 50pts
2. Oliver Solberg (SWE) 35pts
3. Gus Greensmith (GBR) 25pts
4. Fabrizio Zaldivar (PRY) 23pts
5. Alejandro Cachón (ESP) 17pts
5. Roope Korhonen (FIN) 17pts
5. Jan Solans (ESP) 17pts
5. Eric Camilli (FRA) 17pts
9. Jan Cerný (CZE 16pts
9. Robert Daprà (ITA) 16pts, etc.
2025 FIA WRC2 Challenger Championship – positions after round 4:
1. Fabrizio Zaldivar (PRY) 27pts
2. Léo Rossel (FRA) 25pts
2. Roope Korhonen (FIN) 25pts
2. Jan Solans (ESP) 25pts
2. Alejandro Cachón (ESP) 25pts
2. Jan Cerný (CZE 25pts
2. Robert Daprà (ITA) 25pts
8. Nikolay Gryazin (BGR) 17pts
8. Mikko Heikkilä (FIN) 17pts
10. Lauri Joona (FIN) 15pts
10. Efrén Llarena (ESP) 15pts
10. Daniel Chwist (POL) 15pts, etc.