{"id":3319,"date":"2025-05-15T22:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T22:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldrally.eu\/?p=3319"},"modified":"2025-05-15T22:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T22:06:08","slug":"rally-portugal-pushes-drivers-to-the-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldrally.eu\/index.php\/2025\/05\/15\/rally-portugal-pushes-drivers-to-the-limit\/","title":{"rendered":"Rally Portugal Pushes Drivers to the Limit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The fifth round of the World Rally Championship (WRC), Vodafone Rally Portugal, got off to an exciting start today with a big surprise. M\u0101rti\u0146\u0161 Sesks, driving a Ford Puma Rally1, set the fastest time during the shakedown session. On his fourth run of the 5.72 km Baltar stage, he clocked a 3:52.3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right behind him was Kalle Rovanper\u00e4, just 0.6 seconds slower, followed by Thierry Neuville, 0.9 seconds behind. S\u00e9bastien Ogier, the most successful driver in the history of Rally de Portugal with six wins, finished fourth. Ott T\u00e4nak came fifth and Elfyn Evans took sixth place. The rest of the top group included McErlean, Katsuta, Fourmaux, Pajari, and Munster. M-Sport\u2019s fourth entry, Salvi, finished 18th, behind the top WRC2 drivers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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M\u0101rti\u0146\u0161 Sesks and Francis Ren\u0101rs at Shakedown of Rally Portugal \/ Photo by Jaanus Ree \/ Red Bull Content Pool <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rally Action Begins<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After the ceremonial start in Coimbra, the rally officially kicked off with the Figueira da Foz super special stage at 19:05. Elfyn Evans claimed the first stage win with a time of 2 minutes 18.1 seconds. T\u00e4nak and Ogier both followed closely, just 0.2 seconds behind. Fourmaux came in fourth, 0.4 seconds off the pace, while Neuville finished fifth, 0.6 seconds behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the WRC2 category, Gus Greensmith was fastest with 2:23.6, narrowly beating Dapr\u00e0 by 0.1 seconds and Yohan Rossel by 0.2 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Tough Rally Ahead<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Rally Portugal covers 344.50 km across 24 stages. There are also some new changes this year, including a remote service zone instead of the usual tire fitting zone, and two brand-new stages on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every day, the first car is scheduled to leave Parc Ferm\u00e9 at 6:00 AM. With stages finishing quite late each day – parc ferm\u00e9 in at 21:05 on Friday, and just an hour earlier at 20:05 on Saturday – the long days may take a toll on the drivers. The limited time between the end of one day and the start of the next leaves little room for proper rest , adding an extra layer of difficulty to an already demanding rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kalle Rovanper\u00e4 at autograph session of Rally Portugal \/ Photo by Jaanus Ree \/ Red Bull Content Pool <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rovanper\u00e4 said, “The timetable is a bit too much. We have a lot of kilometres, which is okay, but the days are really long”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though it\u2019s exhausting, drivers know it comes with the territory. As Gr\u00e9goire Munster put it, pushing drivers to the limit is “part of rallying”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evans Faces a Tough Day<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Elfyn Evans, who is currently leading the championship, has the extra challenge of starting first on the road for Friday\u2019s leg. This position can be tricky because the road is often looser and slower for the first car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He admitted, “It\u2019s not easy to open the road here, but we\u2019ll do our best with the situation”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n