A rally without history. Kalle Rovanpera ends his lack of success in the WRC by taking a dominant victory at Rally Portugal, the fifth round of the 2023 WRC, relaunching his title ambitions by exploiting the absence of Sébastien Ogier and the retirement of former World Championship leader, Elfyn evans.
It took Rovanpera a few stages before taking the lead, but when he did he left nothing but crumbs to his rivals, despite entering the special stage second in Friday’s stage. Kalle’s great strength was precisely getting amazing lap times on a surface that was still not clean, very slippery, while his direct rivals struggled to find the right grip to be able to push.
Thus the reigning world champion not only managed to take the first position in the standings also exploiting a tire off the rim that slowed Ott Tanak, but he also inflicted very heavy gaps on his direct rivals thanks to an almost perfect Saturday day. with 4 victories out of 7 stages.
Today was then a runway to success, breaking a fast that had now lasted since October 2022, 7 months after the victory obtained at the New Zealand Rally. The result brings him back to the top of the general standings, with his direct rivals who were held back for various reasons. Speaking of Sébastien Ogier’s absence, we must record the high-speed accident that put Elfyn Evans out of action on Friday.
The Welshman, fresh from his win in Croatia, was struggling to open all of the first stage stages, then made a mistake, going off and demolishing his #33 GR Yairs Rally1. Fortunately both he and co-driver Scott Martin escaped unharmed from the car body. The damages reported to the vehicle, however, were such as not to allow the crew to re-enter the race the following day.
Very difficult weekend also for the other title contenders, starting with Ott Tanak. M-Sport Ford’s Estonian was held up by a loose tire on Friday, while he was leading the rally. Then, on Sunday, he was unable to use the hybrid system due to a breakdown. However, the fourth final position was a good result, considering the difficulties he encountered this weekend as well.
Things certainly went worse for Thierry Neuville, third until the first special on Sunday and forced to give up the podium and fourth place respectively to his teammate Esapekka Lappi and Ott Tanak due to an engine failure on his Hyundai i20 N Rally1. The problem emerged on Sunday morning, after the end of stage service carried out on Saturday evening. The number 11 i20 N failed to deliver power to the Belgian crew. No “stage mode” function and no shifting from third to fourth gear (and fifth).
A mockery for Neuville, who certainly hoped to be the object of a team game to climb into second position thanks to a possible swap of positions with Dani Sordo, to recover further points against the riders preceding him in the Drivers’ Championship. But that was not the case. Indeed, Thierry also had to grit his teeth to avoid losing fifth place precisely because of the lack of power from his engine.
However, Hyundai Motorsport can smile, considering the double podium signed by an excellent Dani Sordo and by Esapekka Lappi, capable of taking another third place after the one brought home last month at the Croatian Rally. A partial consolation that helps the Alzenau team to take important points against Toyota. In fact, the Japanese manufacturer takes home only the points of Kalle Rovanpera due to the withdrawal of Evans and the mechanical failure which forced Takamoto Katsuta to retire on Friday.
Pierre-Louis Loubet, second driver for the M-Sport Ford team, was in for another disappointing weekend. If on Friday he even managed to take the lead in the general standings making good use of his perfect starting position, on Saturday he was the author of a mistake in the morning which forced him to retire. In a left-hand bend, the Frenchman cut too much, hitting a rock and thus breaking the steering arm. His Ford Puma ended up cutting across the test roadway, crashing into an embankment on the opposite side.
Loubet and Nicolas Gilsoul were forced to ask the help of some spectators to move the car and not get in the way, thus ending their race.
A weekend full of twists also in WRC2, with Oliver Solberg having to win the rally twice. After being the only one free from problems in the first two days of the race, he ran into a choice that was spectacular, but against the regulations: in fact, he made “donuts”, or rather, circles with the car to entertain the public once PS15 is over, the last round on Saturday.
In doing so, however, the Norwegian broke rule 12.21 of the particular code, combined with article 34.1.3 of the FIA WRC sporting regulation introduced after what Sébastien Ogier did at last season’s Rally Spain.
The stewards imposed a 1-minute penalty on Solberg to add to his race time, causing him to lose the lead in the category standings to Gus Greensmith. However, the Briton, Oliver Solberg’s teammate, made a mistake in SS17, the second on Sunday, breaking the power steering of his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2.
This seemed to be able to reopen the doors of success in Solberg, but Greensmith managed to grit his teeth and bring home success by a whisker in the last round of the 19 planned, Power Stage Fafe 2. A lightning-fast finish for the two Skoda, which however did not affect the great hat-trick obtained by the House of Mlada Boleslav and the TokSport team.
Andreas Mikkelsen was the author of a good comeback after a puncture on Friday which led him to finish on the lowest step of the category podium. Thanks to excellent times, he recovered several seconds on championship leader Yohan Rossel (Citroen) – also penalized by 40″ for arriving 4 minutes late at a Time Check on Saturday – thus managing to complete the job for the Czech house.
