Road sweeping came into full effect on the final two stages of Rally Portugal’s first Friday loop, as Adrien Fourmaux closed to within 0.2s of Hyundai team-mate Ott Tänak for the lead and the road-opening Toyotas started to struggle.
Tänak was quickest out of the gate with stage wins on Mortágua and Lousã, with Toyota pairing Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans following close behind in the podium places.
Rain during recce had left parts of the stages damp, mitigating the road-sweeping effect for the brace of GR Yaris Rally1s up front. But the latter two stages, while still slick and shiny, began to break up as cars passed through, unlocking better grip for those further down the road order.
The chief beneficiary was Fourmaux, who after superallying in Sweden and Kenya was only sixth on the road. He leveraged his advantage fully on the Góis and Arganil stages, winning both to put pressure on his Hyundai team-mate out front.
A buoyant Fourmaux was quoting internet memes after his Arganil stage win; when asked how he’d unlocked the pace to go fastest, he responded: “Techonologia!”
At the other end of the scale was championship leader Evans in sixth place, who had led overnight after the Thursday superspecial in Figueira da Foz but had fallen rapidly down the order.
I think we could have made a better tire choice and definitely struggled on the last few ones now with the car.Kalle Rovanperä
“It’s like the sand has compacted with the rain and it’s like a glass top,” said Evans of the Arganil test. “It’s so slippy and difficult to judge. Quite frustrating as well, sliding a lot, I don’t think I was efficient enough.”
Sébastien Ogier had been frustrated after the Mortágua test, where he’d shipped almost six seconds to rally leader Tänak. Stiffening his Yaris sourced improved pace, elevating him from fifth to third – albeit 7.2s behind Fourmaux.
Takamoto Katsuta, who isn’t nominated to score points for Toyota in Portugal, was another road-position beneficiary, starting seventh and passing both Rovanperä and Katsuta to take fourth place – and even close the gap to Ogier to 0.7s in the battle to be lead Yaris.
Rovanperä is five seconds down on Katsuta after the first five stages and cut a frustrated figure, running second on the road behind Evans. Not only was he unhappy with his tire choice – he also felt the setup of his car wasn’t on point either.
“The conditions seem to be very different than previous years,” said the Finn at the finish of Arganil.
“The roads are now super slick, everything is really smooth and there is absolutely no grip anywhere. It’s very difficult.
After a strong start on Friday morning's opening two stages, Evans and Rovanperä began to feel the pain of their road position on Goís and Arganil
“I think we could have made a better tire choice and definitely struggled on the last few ones now with the car.”
Reigning world champion Thierry Neuville is languishing down in seventh place after a spin on Friday morning’s opening stage – but has at least clawed back time to the struggling Toyotas and is 4.1s behind Evans.
“I’ve been pushing hard,” said Neuville. “I made a small mistake which cost me roughly eight seconds. But I’m pushing.
“I don’t get the good feeling, I’m struggling. The car is soft but at the same time no grip, so missing reactivity and not trusting it all the time, so that’s where I lose the time. But I’m trying.”
Sami Pajari fell to eighth when Neuville mounted a comeback from his spin on Mortágua but has plenty of margin over the chasing M-Sport Ford Pumas, which are now led by Josh McErlean in ninth place.
“It’s changing all the time, sometimes you’re running wide and the next corner the grip’s good,” explained McErlean, who is 16.8s adrift of Pajari. It’s just having the trust and belief, especially down the back end of that mountain where there’s some big drops that you don’t want to go down.”
Rally1 rookie McErlean finds himself leading the line for M-Sport, though is struggling to find confidence with the conditions providing inconsistent grip
Grégoire Munster completes the top 10, with Mārtiņš Sesks several minutes behind after his stage two puncture.
Despite fearing how well he’d adapt to the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 on gravel, Oliver Solberg has already established a solid 16.7s lead in WRC2 over title rival Yohan Rossel.
“I was a bit nervous what to expect,” admitted Solberg after the Mortágua test, which he won. “The feeling wasn’t great to be honest, bit slippery.”
Citroën factory driver Rossel has already admitted he can’t match Solberg’s blazing early pace: “At the moment the fight is not on,” he said. “It’s impossible to follow the leader for now.”
