Rally Portugal: Neuville wins and takes championship lead – WRC

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville took his first ever Rally Portugal victory and with it the World Rally Championship lead after his title rivals hit problems in a chaotic event.

Neuville took control of the rally at the end of a frantic first full day on Friday when many runners either retired or had major delays.

These included Neuville’s main championship rivals, Argentina winner Ott Tanak (Toyota) and points leader coming into the event Sebastien Ogier (M-Sport Ford).

Tanak’s rally lasted only a few miles as he retired on the first stage with an oil-related issue after hitting a rock. Adding to Toyota’s disastrous start, his team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala stopped on the next stage with broken front-right suspension.

Ogier then crashed out on Friday afternoon, sliding off the road on the Viana do Castelo stage after clipping a bank.

There was further drama elsewhere that afternoon, particularly on the subsequent second run at Ponte de Lima where Neuville took an overall lead he wasn’t to lose after the top three runners hit problems.

Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon crashed out while leading and his team-mate Dani Sordo, who was second, lost half a minute after cracking a rim.

Citroen’s Craig Breen was third but lost more than two minutes on the stage after stopping to change a tyre.

Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen also stopped on this stage after power steering problems.

This left Neuville leading by seven seconds from Ford’s Elfyn Evans as the Hyundai driver built an advantage of around 40s over the Welshman by the end of Saturday’s running, which he maintained until the end.

Neuville also took four additional points by placing second on the rally-closing Fafe power stage.

Kris Meeke was third after the second Ponte de Lima stage on Friday – despite an earlier puncture – but then lost a minute when he did the subsequent Porto street stages with his left-rear wheel down to the rim after a tyre delamination.

The Citroen driver then crashed out heavily on Saturday morning on a left-hand bend with his car coming to rest in the trees. The Irishman was taken to hospital for precautionary checks on his back but was released later in the day.

A tight battle for the final podium place was won by Evans’ team-mate Teemu Suninen, taking his first ever WRC podium and making it a Ford 2-3.

He was chased by Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi and Sordo, the latter ending Saturday third overall but dropped to fourth overnight with a 10s penalty for dislodging two of the bails on a Porto street stage roundabout.

Lappi took fourth in the end, 7.4s behind Suninen and 6.2s ahead of Sordo in fifth.

Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen all returned to the action under Rally2 rules on Saturday hoping to score points on the power stage, but none of them did as Mikkelsen came closest in sixth. The five additional points were taken by Lappi.

Result