Ott Tänak has successfully fended off Sébastien Ogier’s challenge for the lead of Rally Portugal, taking a crucial stage win on Amarante to bounce back from a puncture on the prior stage.
Ogier was on a mission to track Tänak down the lead and was successful early doors, winning both the Vieira do Minho and Cabeceiras de Basto tests. Tänak suffered a rear-left puncture on the latter, further slowing his progress.
But on Amarante Tänak was flying, having cured the issues that left him uncomfortable behind the wheel of his Hyundai on the Vieira do Minho stage. He outmuscled the entire field by 4.6s but more importantly was 9.8s quicker than Ogier.
“Good stage from him,” Ogier said, complimenting Tänak’s effort. “I’m just too slow.”
An impact to Tänak's left rear tire threatened to derail his lead – but he was back on song for Amarante
A Toyota intra-team battle for the final podium place led to plenty of position swapping between Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta, with a front-left puncture on Amarante for Katsuta handing the two-time world champion third by only 0.4s.
Rovanperä was the only driver to take two hards in his selection for Saturday morning and on the day’s first test, Vieira do Minho, which he suggested hadn’t worked as hoped; Katsuta then briefly retook third on Cabeceiras de Basto, only for the front-left puncture to hand it back to the double world champion.
Ogier’s struggle to match the front-running pace on Amarante allowed Rovanperä to close the second-place gap down to 24s.
Thierry Neuville’s hopes of entering the fray of the podium battle feel short for three reasons: one, road sweeping was pronounced on the opening loop, with even one position on the road marking a clear difference in grip available. Secondly, while Neuville was content balance of his i20 N Rally1, the rear kept stepping out when trying to pick up the throttle on corner exits. And, lastly, taking softs all around came back to bite him on Amarante.
“My tires were overheating at some point,” said Neuville at the finish line. “It was a good choice from [Kalle] with the hard tires, I’m surprised. I tried to do my best but I felt early in the stage my tires were getting warm; I tried not to manage too much and just go for it and see how it works.”
With so little mileage on the current-spec Hankook gravel tires, Neuville elected to simply push on into the unknown rather than pre-empt any tire management
It didn’t work; he lost another 3.4s on Amarante and is now over 10s from the battle for third place.
Championship leader Elfyn Evans continued to struggle, even with five cars starting ahead to help sweep the loose gravel away on the first pass of Saturday’s trio of gravel tests.
Evans fell further away from Sami Pajari in the battle for sixth, the gap between the pair extending from 7.6s to to 15.2s over the course of Saturday morning.
“We changed some stuff on the car overnight and the rear seems loose now, which isn’t helping a lot,” Evans explained.
Josh McErlean has retaken the lead in the M-Sport intra-team battle, capitalizing on a poor setup choice from Grégoire Munster to move back to eighth place overall.
Munster was caught out by his own experience from a year ago, having not expecting the stages to be as soft as they were – especially on Amarante, where he shipped 13.4s to McErlean.
“We are too stiff with the car, so I can’t do anything,” said Munster. “There’s no bite, no grip, as soon as it gets narrow just sliding wide near the rocks and I can’t afford to do a mistake.”
Depsite being the less experienced full-timer in the M-Sport lineup, Josh McErlean has been the most competitive Ford Puma runner on Saturday morning
But the attitude in the McErlean camp was the opposite – rather than fiddle with the car at Friday night service, he’d opted to mostly leave his Ford Puma alone and focus on his driving instead.
“Straightforward, some click changes and that’s it,” said McErlean of his setup tweaks. “If I learn to drive this beast better, that’ll be alright.”
Mārtinš Sesks is still well down the order after his nightmare Friday that involved stopping to change a puncture and a three-minute penalty for failing to start a stage on time after checking in at the prior control; he’s still over five minutes away from a top 10 position.
With nothing to play for, Rally Portugal has turned into a glorified test session for Sesks.
“We are still trying things,” said Sesks. “Some things are working, some are not. That’s part of the process.”
After retiring from the lead battle on Friday. Adrien Fourmaux elected to restart for Saturday’s action, sweeping the road as first car out.
“I’m still in a Rally1 car, so I’m still enjoying the drive anyway,” said Fourmaux, racking up miles ahead of a push for points on Sunday.
