When Röhrl used Lancia’s tricks against the Italians

At some point, the question’s coming. Given the potential for dry and dusty conditions, it’s as inevitable as the consumption of pastéis de nata in Portugal this week. What are we talking about? Team orders, of course.

Will Toyota shuffle its pack to help Elfyn Evans or what if Dani Sordo is out front for Hyundai? Does the Spaniard pull over and let Thierry Neuville or Ott Tänak by? The policy of the two teams differs slightly on getting involved, but Takamoto Katsuta admitted to DirtFish that he’d thought about trying to help Evans by taking a more conservative approach to the powerstage in Croatia.

There’s nothing new with drivers getting involved of their own volition. That was very much the case in Portugal 40 years ago. Not once, but twice, the Audi crews helped each other out against the common enemy of Lancia.

The first moment came when Stig Blomqvist rounded a corner to find the sister quattro of Walter Röhrl on its side. With no spectators around to help heave the hefty A2 dirty side down, the Swede nosed his car up a bank and nudged it back down onto its wheels.

Sadly for Röhrl, his drama wasn’t done. The car caught fire and co-driver Christian Geistdorfer was forced to douse the flames. The German pair plummeted down a leaderboard headed by team-mate Hannu Mikkola.

But there wasn’t much in it at the top of the timesheets. Lancia’s Markku Alén was breathing down his countryman’s neck.

With Alén running first on the road in some of the dustiest conditions imaginable, Mikkola knew he was going to lose time as the crews headed to a night halt in Viseu.

Geistdorfer had a plan. He guided the #4 Audi into an arrival control on the same minute as Mikkola’s car was due. Sitting ahead of Hannu, Röhrl went into the stage first. Not far off the line, he pulled over and waited for his team-mate to pass by. In doing that, he doubled Mikkola’s one-minute gap to the car ahead and helped his fellow Audi man see clearly enough to fend off the 037.

“Not only a fantastic driver,” smiled Mikkola, “but a fantastic team-mate. It was all his idea.”

As is the case today, opinion was split on how much the teams should influence the result. Lancia’s team principal Cesare Fiorio, for example, wasted no time in getting on the radio to tell his drivers what needed doing in the name of the team. So, the Italians were nonplussed with Röhrl and Geistdorfer’s plan.

“You must do it together,” said Röhrl. “You are a team.”

The former Lancia driver added with a wry smile: “I learned the tricks from Fiorio last year…”