The drivers had warned ahead of time: Rally Portugal’s 15-hour Friday itinerary is going to be punishing.
While the stage mileage wasn’t far beyond a standard day of World Rally Championship action, it was spread across three separate loops, with the first car checking out at 6am and arriving back at the service park after 9pm. And the first crew departing on Saturday would, again, need to check out of parc fermé at 6am on Saturday.
Sébastien Ogier is now sitting reasonably comfortably atop the rally classification, with almost half a minute in hand over teammate Kalle Rovanperä with Sunday’s six stages remaining. But he was anything but comfortable in the car on Saturday.
He was suffering a hangover – not the post-inebriation kind, but the consequence of asking his body to handle the gruelling itinerary in baking hot temperatures without adequate rest.
“I’ve never really struggled like this physically on a race day,” Ogier admitted to DirtFish.
I felt okay at the end of this marathon day, but the short nights didn't allow us to really recover from it.Sébastien Ogier
M-Sport gentleman driver Diogo Salvi aside, Ogier is the oldest Rally1 driver in the field at 41 years of age, which he admitted was a factor. But more importantly, a marathon day followed by an earlier start had compromised his ability to rest and recover afterwards.
On the roadside between the Amarante and Lousada stages, Ogier climbed out of his GR Yaris and sat in the shade on a grassy verge. It was a welcome relief from the toasty cockpit of his Rally1 machine; the new silver reflective livery can only do so much to mitigate internal temperatures.
“[It’s] maybe a little bit of the age,” said Ogier, “but I think it’s also the fact that yesterday I felt okay at the end of this marathon day, but the short nights didn’t allow us to really recover from it, and today was much harder.”
“I’m glad we are here, back at the service, with a good day behind us.”
Ogier and his car both survived the rigors of Portugal’s rougher Saturday stages; the same could not be said for erstwhile rally lead Ott Tänak’s Hyundai, which suffered a power steering failure that dropped him out of the lead.
Toyota's switch to an interim silver reflective livery was prescient given Ogier's Saturday struggles with the heat
The eight-time world champion is now in prime position to score a 63rd career WRC win – but isn’t getting ahead of himself.
“Of course I don’t celebrate to take the lead like this,” said Ogier. “It’s not the way we enjoy it the most, especially against friends like Ott, but it’s part of the game sometimes in motorsport.
“Now we have to try to finish the job tomorrow. 75 kilometres is still a long way.”
