Elfyn Evans dominated the opening gravel stage of Rally Portugal, blitzing the World Rally Championship field by 6.1 seconds to storm into the lead.
With bone dry conditions on Friday morning, stage conditions were set to favor those running further down the road order. As ninth car on the road, Toyota’s Evans was in the box seat to take advantage.
“Nothing too crazy. Everything [is] working quite OK,” said a highly understated Evans after his blistering push through the Lousã stage.
Portugal is Gus Greensmith’s favorite rally and based on his pace on Lousã, it’s easy to see why.
Greensmith headed the chasing pack, his 9m05.0s run enough to usurp overnight leader Ott Tänak.
As M-Sport’s fourth driver in Portugal, Greensmith isn’t nominated for manufacturer points, though believes a podium is realistic target regardless of team-mate Adrien Fourmaux retaining his points-scoring role ahead of him.
And after his fast time on Lousã, Greensmith was feeling confident he could make his podium dream a reality.
“I woke up this morning and I decided it was time,” said Greensmith. “I’ll give it what I’ve got. I’m sure at the end of the rally I’ll have nothing left.”
Among its army of Puma Rally1s, it was fellow non-points-scorer Pierre-Louis Loubet joining Greensmith at the sharp end of the times, going third fastest.
“I was too cautious in some places,” Loubet confessed afterwards. “I need to be more clean on my driving but it’s fine, it’s a good start, so let’s continue like this.”
Having gone only 11th-fastest on the rally-opening Coimbra superspecial on Thursday night, Loubet’s fast time was only enough to climb to eighth.
Hyundai had bolted into a 1-2 lead on Coimbra, helped by taking zero spares on the asphalt superspecial while its rivals teams carried a single backup tire.
That gambit helped Tänak and Neuville retain third and fourth overall, only 0.5s and 1.1s off Greensmith respectively.
Despite a highly favorable road position, Toyota returnee Sébastien Ogier was not able to match the pace of his team-mate Evans on Lousã, going fifth-fastest as he admitted he’d “started pretty bad in the stage.”
Dani Sordo was the last Rally1 car to start but wasn’t able to take advantage of having the ideal road position, finishing eight seconds off the pace and remaining down in 11th after his error on the Coimbra superspecial.
M-Sport’s nominated point scorers struggled compared to Greensmith and Loubet on Lousã. Craig Breen was only 11th-fastest but retains sixth, 0.3s up on Loubet overall.
Sébastien Loeb, running fourth on the road, could only muster the eighth-fastest time and occupies the same position overall, tied with Takamoto Katsuta.
Championship leader Kalle Rovanperä rounds out the top 10, struggling with road sweeping as first car on the road.
SS2 Results
- Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) 8m58.9s
- Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +6.1s
- Pierre-Louis Loubet/Landais (M-Sport Ford) +7.5s
- Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +7.8s
- Sébastien Ogier/Benjamin Veillas (Toyota) +7.8s
- Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai) +8.0s
- Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +9.0s
- Sébastien Loeb/Isabelle Galmiche (M-Sport Ford) +9.5s
- Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +10.1s
- Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +10.3s
Leading Positions after SS2
- Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) 11m40.3s
- Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +4.4s
- Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +4.9s
- Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +5.5s
- Sébastien Ogier/Benjamin Veillas (Toyota) +6.4s
- Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (M-Sport Ford) +8.3s
- Pierre-Louis Loubet/Landais (M-Sport Ford) +8.6s
- Sébastien Loeb/Isabelle Galmiche (M-Sport Ford) +9.4s
- Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +9.4s
- Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +9.5s
