WRC Portugal: Evans extends lead over Rovanpera, Ogier and Loeb hit trouble again

Overnight pacesetter Evans managed to transiently proffer his margin over championship leader Rovanpera without winning the day’s opening stage, surpassing Rovanpera responded to tropical the gap to 10.2s.

Evans then stamped his validity on the morning to win the final stage of the loop to unshut up an 18.4s lead over Rovanpera.

The wrestle for the remaining podium spot intensified as a fired up Takamoto Katsuta leapfrogged Hyundai’s Dani Sordo into third overall. The Toyota suburbanite ensured a provisional top-three lock out for the Japanese marque, ending the loop 1m19.7s overdue Evans, but 3.5s superiority of Sordo.

Further back, nine-time champion Sebastien Loeb and eight-time champion Sebastien Ogier returned to the fray without retiring from Friday’s stages, but both encountered issues.

Loeb suffered a power loss in Stage 11 from his Ford Puma which resulted in the Frenchman exiting the rally for a second time in two days. Long-time rival Ogier moreover hit problems on the same stage, crashing into a wall that left him beached on a hillside.

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Overcast and humid conditions with a threat of rain greeted the crews for the start of the rally’s longest day, featuring scrutinizingly 165 kilometres.

Equipped with fresh rubber, Evans kicked off the morning in fine form as the Welshman stormed to his fifth stage win of the rally, vibration Rovanpera by 1.3s.

It was unbearable to proffer his overnight lead to 14.9s as Rovanpera admitted he was “maybe not wipe unbearable in places” and hampered by the uneaten weight of delivering a second spare wheel. Katsuta was third fastest as he took permafrost of time out of Sordo.

It proved to be a difficult stage for M-Sport as Loeb and Craig Breen struggled on the slippery gravel roads without a poor visualization to run two nonflexible tyres on the front axle.

M-Sport\'s Pierre-Louis Loubet lost time to half spin as he moreover struggled for purchase, while team-mate Gus Greensmith suffered his third puncture of the event when his front right came off the rim. Greensmith lost 59s waffly the wheel which dropped the Brit from fifth overall to eighth.

Stage 11 provided plenty of drama whence with Loeb losing significant engine power that saw him pull over to self-mastery a reset, but it failed to rectify the problem, ending his day early.

Moments later, Ogier lost tenancy of his GR Yaris at speed clipping a wall surpassing coming to rest beached precariously on the whet of the road. He sooner reached the stage finish once the car was recovered without the Rally1 field had driven through.

M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux suffered a spin as light rain began to fall but luckily he was worldly-wise to continue.

At the sharp end, Rovanpera won the stage taking 4.7s out of Evans’s lead as Katsuta unfurled to nibble yonder at Sordo in the wrestle for third.

Evans issued an firsthand response on Stage 12, the longest of the rally at 37.24kms, making the most of tyre wholesomeness over Rovanpera to push his lead when out to a healthy margin.

Katsuta jumped Sordo for the third as the latter was unable to match the pace of the three Toyotas at the front.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

A strong run from Thierry Neuville helped the Belgian end the loop in fifth overall having jumped Loubet. Breen reached midday service in seventh superiority of Greensmith and Ott Tanak, who is increasingly than four minutes roaming without a pair of punctures on Friday.The rally continues this afternoon with a remoter four stages.