Thierry Neuville inherited the Rally Portugal lead with one stage remaining after World Rally Championship title holder Sebastien Ogier suffered a puncture on the penultimate stage.
Ogier headed into stage 22 seemingly on course to score an eighth career Rally Portugal victory, equipped with a 17.3s lead over Neuville.
The nine-time world champion had managed to survive the worst of the wet weather that arrived on Sunday morning, before his rally suddenly unravelled.
Running through the penultimate stage, Ogier hit a rock in the line that caused a right rear puncture. Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais managed to complete a wheel change, but lost two minutes in the process and dropped from the lead to sixth overall.
“It was very rough and there were some rocks in the line. There were rocks everywhere at the beginning,” said a frustrated Ogier.
With one stage remaining, Neuville moved into a 14.8s lead and was in pole position to claim a first win of the season for the Hyundai team since last year’s season finale in Saudi Arabia. Neuville came close to claiming a win in Croatia last month before crashing out of the final stage.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Hyundai
“Nothing is done yet,” said the 2024 world champion. “So far we have done the job, now we must finish. We know how not to do it [referring to his Croatia crash], now we should do it.”
The leaderboard underwent a severe shake up as third-placed Sami Pajari also suffered a puncture, and was forced to stop and change a wheel, which dropped the Finn to seventh overall.
It meant Toyota’s Oliver Solberg jumped to second while championship leader Elfyn Evans inherited third, ahead of Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who set the fastest time in stage 22.
Takamoto Katsuta took fifth, 14.2s ahead of Ogier, while Pajari, Dani Sordo, Martins Sesks and leading WRC2 runner Teemu Suninen rounded out the top 10.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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