Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Elfyn Evans finishes the second day with the fastest time on Rallye de Portugal’s last stage of the day which was the Super Special Stage at the rallycross track in Lousada, the Welshman leads the rally when the first tough day is completed.
Evans took over the lead from Thierry Neuville already on the second stage of the rally, Neuvillenwas fastest on Thursday’s Coimbra opening stage. Evans continued to be fastest on SS3 but had to hand over the lead to M-Sport Ford’s Sébastien Loeb after SS4. But the rally lead for Loeb was short lived as he lost the control of his Ford Puma Rally1 and hitted a brick wall which tored off the rear-right wheel, the nine-time champion had to retire for the day.
Evans won two more stages on the afternoon loop, the other two stage wins went to the current points leader and teammate Kalle Rovanperä. The young Finn is also second overall, a strong achievement considering the challenging conditions out in the woods with 13.6 seconds are taken on leading Evans before Saturday.
In third place currently is the returning Hyundai driver Dani Sordo who struggled with the pace, but when the other drivers had problems as Ott Tänak, Craig Breen and Sébastien Ogier suffered from punctures on SS6.
Ogier caught up a second puncture on SS7 and the day was ruined as the Frenchman was forced to retire from the day. On SS8 Neuville also disappeared from the battle for the lead as he had drive shaft problems and service on the transport between the stages made so the Belgian lost a lot of valuable time.
Outside of the top 3 currently is the Toyota’s Next Generation driver Takamoto Katsuta in fourth with 5.2 seconds after Sordo and 11.1 seconds ahead of M-Sport’s Gus Greensmith, who unfortunately caught a puncture on the Lousada super special at the end of the day. Greensmith’s teammate Pierre-Louis Loubet is sixth, Neuville seventh and further down are the M-Sport’s duo of Breen and Adrien Fourmaux, and Tänak rounds up the top 10.
| Position | Driver / Co-driver | Nationality | Team | Car | Class | Time |
| 1. | Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin | Great Britain | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | WRC | 59:04.3 |
| 2. | Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne Halttunen | Finland | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | WRC | + 13.6 |
| 3. | Dani Sordo / Cándido Carrera | Spain | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | WRC | + 44.4 |
| 4. | Takamoto Katsuta / Aaron Johnston | Japan / Great Britain | Toyota Gazoo Racing NG | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | WRC | + 49.6 |
| 5. | Gus Greensmith / Jonas Andersson | Great Britain / Sweden | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | WRC | + 1:00.7 |
| 6. | Pierre-Louis Loubet / Vincent Landais | France | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | WRC | + 1:15.6 |
| 7. | Thierry Neuville / Martijn Wydaeghe | Belgium | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | WRC | + 1:46.4 |
| 8. | Craig Breen / Paul Nagle | Ireland | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | WRC | + 1:49.3 |
| 9. | Adrien Fourmaux / Alexandre Coria | France | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | WRC | + 2:03.6 |
| 10. | Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja | Estonia | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally2 | WRC | + 3:38.4 |
Suninen takes over the WRC2 lead as Mikkelsen suffers from an engine problem
After day two of Portugal it was the Hyundai’s Teemu Suninen who took over the WRC2 lead as the current championship leader Andreas Mikkelsen suffered from a misfire on before the afternoon service.
Suninen had been leading the class after winning five consecutive stages from the morning but on the challenging and rough SS7, the Finn unfortunately caught up a puncture and lost almost a minute, which handed the class lead over to Mikkelsen.
However the class lead was also short lived for the Toksport WRT driver as the Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo developed a misfire but the Norwegian managed to get the car back to the service park at Matosinhos with 37 seconds ahead of Suninen but he later retired the car and Suninen could then retake the lead and has a 17.1 seconds advantage over Yohan Rossel in second.
Suninen’s teammate Oliver Solberg is currently in third with 23 seconds after Rossel, the Swede has been comfortably in second for most of the day but lost time after having two punctures. The two Poles of Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Mikołaj Marczyk are in fourth and fifth respectively.
Out of the 40 class entrants only 25 made it back after the day, the retirements of the day including Eric Camilli who dropped out early on Thursday with an electric failure, Eerik Pietarinen with a brake pipe failure, Josh McErlean with broken steering, Erik Cais who lost a wheel and Marco Bulacia with punctures.
| Position | Driver / Co-driver | Nationality | Team | Car | Class | Time |
| 1. | Teemu Suninen / Mikko Markkula | Finland | Hyundai Motorsport N | Hyundai i20 N Rally2 | WRC2 | 1:30:49.5 |
| 2. | Yohan Rossel / Valentin Sarreud | France | PH Sport | Citroën C3 Rally2 | WRC2 | + 17.1 |
| 3. | Oliver Solberg / Elliott Edmondson | Sweden / Great Britain | Hyundai Motorsport N | Hyundai i20 N Rally2 | WRC2 | + 40.1 |
| 4. | Kajetan Kajetanowicz / Maciej Szczpaniak | Poland | N/A | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | WRC2 | + 1:26.2 |
| 5. | Mikołaj Marczyk / Szymon Gospordarczyk | Poland | N/A | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | WRC2 Junior | + 1:55.0 |
| 6. | Chris Ingram / Craig Drew | Great Britain | N/A | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | WRC2 Junior | + 2:16.4 |
| 7. | Fabrizio Zaldivar / Carlos del Barrio | Paraguay / Spain | Hyundai Motorsport N | Hyundai i20 N Rally2 | WRC2 Junior | + 3:33.1 |
| 8. | Benito Guerra Jr. / Sara Fernández | Mexico / Spain | N/A | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | WRC2 | + 3:36.1 |
| 9. | Ricardo Teodósio / José Teixeira | Portugal | N/A | Hyundai i20 N Rally2 | WRC2 | + 4:08.8 |
| 10. | Martin Prokop / Michal Ernst | Czech Republic | N/A | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | WRC2 | + 5:07.0 |
Pajari tops WRC3 and JWRC classes
The Flying Finn Sami Pajari is topping both of the single-make Ford Fiesta Rally3 classes of WRC3 and the Junior WRC after the challeging second day.
Pajari took an early lead on the Thursday’s opening stage just ahead of Jon Armstrong but lost the rally lead on the second day’s morning loop to the Britoin.
The Finn then lost more time to Armstrong as the Finn was unlucky with a puncture and was 1 minute and 32.7 seconds behind at the midday tyre fitting zone. However Armstrong later retired from the huge lead when a rear suspension arm sheared which graduated Pajari to leading the two classes.
The Croatia Rally winner and fellow Finn Lauri Joona is currently in second with a large gap behind of 4 minutes and 48.5 seconds while the third and final JWRC driver to finish the day, the Estonian Robert Virves is 15 minutes and 22 seconds back from the lead as the car suffered an enginr control unit issue. The local hero Nuno “Kaetanen” Caetano is the only driver who is not entered in both classes and he is currently in third in the Rally3 class.
William Creighton had to retire due to punctures and Kimathi Mcrae crashed out on the Mortágua test.
| Position | Driver / Co-driver | Nationality | Team | Car | Class | Time |
| 1. | Sami Pajari / Enni Mälkönen | Finland | M-Sport Poland | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | WRC3 / JWRC | 1:37:28.1 |
| 2. | Lauri Joona / Mikael Korhonen | Finland | M-Sport Poland | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | WRC3 / JWRC | + 4:48.5 |
| 3. | “Kaetanen” / Sofia Mouta | Portugal | N/A | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | Rally3 | + 10:45.9 |
| 4. | Robert Virves / Aleks Lesk | Estonia | Starter Energy Racing | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | WRC3 / JWRC | + 15:22.0 |
| 5. | Jon Armstrong / Brian Hoy | Great Britain / Ireland | M-Sport Poland | Ford Fiests Rally3 | WRC3 / JWRC | + 28:53.7 |
| 6. | Kimathi McRae / Stuart Loudon | Kenya / Great Britain | M-Sport Poland | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | WRC3 / JWRC | + 29:24.8 |
| 7. | William Creighton / Liam Regan | Ireland | Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | WRC3 / JWRC | + 36:13.8 |
