A notional time for Elfyn Evans on SS7 now leaves him second overall ahead of Friday’s final stage of Rally Portugal, after he initially dropped from fourth to sixth caught in the dust behind an ailing Thierry Neuville.
Hyundai driver Neuville made a dramatic mistake on the Mortágua stage that broke the transmission and suspension on the rear-right of his car. He managed to get his i20 Coupe WRC to the end of the stage but held Evans up in the process – and has since retired from the rally.
Evans lost 37.3 seconds to his Toyota team-mate and the stage winner Sébastien Ogier, and dropped down the order as a result.
But a decision from the Rally Portugal clerk of the course to give him the same time as Ogier for SS7 – having reviewed the TV footage and the split times – has elevated him up to second place in the rally, 2.7s behind Hyundai’s Ott Tänak and 0.3s clear of long-time leader Dani Sordo who had a difficult SS7 with fading tires and a stall.
Toyota junior Takamoto Katsuta is fourth, 9s behind Sordo and 12s adrift of the lead. Neuville’s retirement prior to SS8 means two of the Volkswagens contesting for WRC2 honors are now in the overall top 10.
Just the 2.08-mile Lousada superspecial remains on Friday before 13 further stages across Saturday and Sunday.
SS7 times
1 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) 11m42.7s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +0.0s
3 Gus Greensmith/Chris Patterson (M-Sport Ford) +5.3s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +5.7s
5 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +9.0s
6 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +17.4s
Leading positions after SS7
1 Tänak/Järveoja 1h20m03.6s
2 Evans/Martin +2.7s
3 Sordo/Rozada +3.0s
4 Katsuta/Barritt +12.0s
5 Ogier/Ingrassia +22.7s
6 Rovanperä/Halttunen +25.0s
7 Greensmith/Patterson +59.2s
8 Adrien Fourmaux/Renaud Jamoul +1m27.4s
9 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Volkswagen) +3m27.9s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Volkswagen) +3m29.0s
