The big questions as WRC begins its gravel season in Portugal

The World Rally Championship heads into a crucial part of the title race with this weekend’s Rally Portugal beginning a run of seven consecutive gravel rallies.

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans holds a 43-point lead over team-mate Kalle Rovanpera, with Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville third 50 points adrift, heading into round five, but the next run of gravel events will prove vital in determining this year’s title fight.

With the specific Monte Carlo, Sweden, Kenya and Canary Islands rallies done and dusted, Portugal represents the start of the traditional season with 24 rough gravel stages awaiting the crews.

Here are the key talking points heading into Portugal.

Can Rovanpera translate Canarias asphalt supremacy to gravel?

Kalle Rovanpera kickstarted his campaign by delivering one of the most dominant victories of his career in the Canary Islands last month, bringing an end to a subdued start to the campaign, headlined by struggles adapting to the new-for-2025 Hankook tyres.

Rovanpera’s Rally Islas Canarias asphalt masterclass came as a shock given the Finn is not renowned for speed on asphalt, and had shown little signs of progress unlocking the secrets of the Hankook rubber, which had forced a change to his driving style. Prior to the triumph, Rovanpera was without a podium finish this year but in the Canary Islands he delivered a performance that stunned his rivals.

It was a drive akin to those that were prevalent in his 2022 and 2023 title-winning campaigns and has thrust Rovanpera to second in the championship standings.

It now begs the question, is this the start of a Rovanpera resurgence?

There are, however, a number of factors to consider. Hankook will debut a new specification gravel tyre in Portugal, which will present challenges to all drivers as they aim to adapt to the rubber. This year’s form has shown that it has taken the Finn time to work out the nuances of the new rubber. Rovanpera was also unable to match Evans’ pace on gravel in Safari Rally Kenya in March, but that event is regarded as an outlier gravel rally due to its unique conditions.

In Portugal, Rovanpera will also be hampered by road cleaning, starting second in the order, but this is an event the 24-year-old enjoys having already won it twice, and in 2022 he took victory starting first on the road. If everything clicks this weekend, he has every chance of adding to his victory tally.

Although, looking ahead to Portugal, the Toyota driver was quick to mention that the return to gravel would pose a new challenge. Interestingly in testing, Rovanpera admitted that his initial feeling on the surface was “not the best” and that he is still yet to find his “happy place” on gravel.

“Now we go back to gravel, where I’m still working to feel as comfortable as I do on asphalt,” said Rovanpera. “On gravel there’s always less grip and you’re sliding a lot more, and with the different weight balance of the car and new tyres this year, I’m still looking for the happy place.

“Together with the team we were working hard on it during our test last week and hopefully we can find a good, consistent pace to keep scoring the points on these next rallies. The style of the stages in Portugal is really nice, I always enjoy driving them and hopefully we can be fast there again this year.”

Why Friday will be critical for success in Portugal

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

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Portugal has proven to be a rally of attrition in previous years, testing drivers and machines to their limits, and this is expected to continue this weekend.

It appears surviving Friday will be key to any victory bid due to a punishing schedule that awaits the crews. A whopping 10 stages are planned on Friday, making for arguably the most challenging day of the season to date. The day will run without a midpoint service, with the loops punctuated by two 20-minute remote services to repair any issues suffered across the day. There is also only a tyre fitting zone on Thursday night after the 2.94km Figueira da Foz super special, meaning a trouble-free run through the stages is essential.

Teams will only be able to carry out relatively minor repairs using a limited resource on parts in the remote services, which means finding a healthy balance between attacking and being cautious through the stages will be critical.

Can Hyundai ignite its season after crashing Canarias defeat?

Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

Without a victory this season, Hyundai is in desperate need to respond to rivals Toyota. The need to end the Japanese brand’s 2025 domination was hammered home after a bruising Rally Islas Canarias where fundamental issues with Hyundai’s car were highlighted. It left Hyundai helpless to prevent Toyota from scoring a 1-2-3-4 on Spanish islands asphalt.

At this point last season Hyundai already had two wins on the board after Neuville took the spoils in Monte Carlo followed by Esapekka Lappi’s success in Sweden. The Korean marque heads to Portugal 51 points adrift of Toyota, knowing that it must start to deliver if it wishes to fight for both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles.

Hyundai will hope that what happened in the Canary Islands was a one-off given the event’s specific road conditions. Although, a quick look in the Rally Portugal history book makes for grim reading. Hyundai’s last victory at the event arrived in 2018 (Neuville) and since then Toyota has been unbeaten.

However, this weekend will offer an opportunity for Hyundai to showcase its heavily upgraded i20 N Rally1 on gravel for the first time. It is understood that the improvements made in weight saving and to the suspension have been geared more towards gravel. Drivers Neuville, Ott Tanak and Adrien Fourmaux will also have the benefit of a slightly better road position compared to Evans and Rovanpera.

“We need a strong result as a team, we need to be stronger than the Toyotas and we need to outscore Elfyn – he has a big lead in the championship and we haven’t been able to fight back as much as we would have hoped, so he will be our main target to beat in Portugal along with Kalle,” said Neuville.

Fourmaux added: “We didn’t get the best results at the end of the last round, so as a team we need to stop the domination of Toyota and get a really good result with all three cars. I want to be back on the podium to help with the charge, this is crucial for the rest of the season.”

How will Evans fare opening the road on rough gravel?

Elfyn Evans, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Portugal promises to be a key barometer in Evans’ pursuit of a maiden WRC title, with the event the first of seven gravel rallies where he could face the difficulties of opening the road.

Granted, Evans has had to open the road in the previous three events since heading to the top of the standings. But in Sweden it proved to be an advantage due to this year’s unusual snow conditions, while Kenya is an outlier event and the Canary Islands was on asphalt.

Evans admitted last year that the rougher gravel were his Achilles Heel last year having struggled to find the balance in his GR Yaris. This year Evans has largely been at one with his car that has yielded two wins in what has been the Welshman’s best start to a WRC campaign.

But starting first on the road in Portugal will be arguably his biggest challenge of the season to date. There has been rain earlier this week that could help his cause, but if the roads dry out there will be plenty of sweeping.

Although Evans will now have to deal with the disadvantage of sweeping the stages, he believes progress has been made in regards to his performance on rough gravel.

“After a good start to the season we’re now entering a sequence of gravel events where, as championship leader, it can be challenging running first on the road on the Friday if it’s dry,” said Evans.

“My recent testing on gravel has been in the wet, so preparation has not been ideal, but the feeling was good in Kenya and even if the rallies we’re heading into are quite different to that, I’m confident we can start them in a stronger place than where we were last year. Even if road cleaning is a factor, we also want to aim for a strong run through Sunday to keep scoring as many points as we can.”