WRC | Rally Portugal, PS10: Toyota hat-trick. Neuville dates back

The Rally of Portugal, the fourth round of the WRC 2022, started this morning with Special Stage 10, the Vieira do Minho 1 of 21.57 kilometers, and saw the Toyota sprint in the best way, signing a great hat-trick.

Elfyn Evans once again took the best time in 13’37 “9, beating his teammate and only rival for the win by 1” 3 Kalle Rovanpera. The two riders of the Japanese team made perfect use of their Soft tires on a sandier surface than yesterday and made the difference.

Now Evans’ advantage over Rovanpera is 14 “9, while in third place in the special we find Takamoto Katsuta. The Japanese was the author of a good test, managing to get behind the first Hyundai i20 N Rally1, that of Thierry Neuville, and to approach the third position in the general classification which is still in the hands of Dani Sordo.

Neuville immediately began the comeback. After yesterday’s failure and the consequent loss of several positions in the standings, Thierry immediately opened the throttle and has already recovered a position using a beaded tire from Gus Greensmith.

The British driver of the M-Sport team damaged the left front wheel and the corresponding headlight, probably due to a slight off-road in the first kilometers of the special. This led him to lose a minute against the Belgian – at that moment leader of the special – allowing him to climb to sixth position in the general.

Pierre-Louis Loubet is also in trouble, who lost 21 “1 to Neuville and now has the Hyundai driver less than 10” in the standings. The fight for fifth place is more open than ever.

Rally of Portugal – Ranking after the SS10