WRC Rally1 line-up at Rally Portugal set to match record

Rally Portugal will welcome the strongest Rally1 line-up since 2022 when it hosts the next round of the World Rally Championship later this month.

Twelve Rally1 cars are set to tackle Portugal’s 24 gravel stages for round five of the season from 15-18 May.

Toyota will once again field five GR Yaris Rally1 cars with the most successful driver in Rally Portugal history, six-time winner Sebastien Ogier, set to make his third start of a partial campaign.

The eight-time world champion, who won last year’s round in Portugal, will join full-time Toyota drivers, including championship leader Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanpera, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari. The round will also feature the debut of Toyota’s recently revealed silver paint scheme that will replace its black livery for the summer events.

Hyundai will field its trio of i20 N Rally cars for Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanak and Adrien Fourmaux, while M-Sport-Ford will be represented by four Pumas. Martins Sesks rejoins the squad for the second of six scheduled starts for the British team, alongside Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean. The fourth Puma will be driven by experienced 55-year-old local privateer Diogo Salvi.

The entry marks the largest line-up of Rally1 cars since Rally Spain in 2022. Toyota and M-Sport have already begun preparations for the round, conducting pre-event tests this week.

Meanwhile, a record 45 cars have been entered into the WRC2 class, which includes WRC rally winners Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo.

Meeke and Sordo are both contesting the Portuguese national championship, which is hosting its fourth round of the season at the WRC event. Former factory Mini, Citroen and Toyota driver Meeke will pilot a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, in which he has edged works Hyundai WRC driver Sordo (i20 N Rally2) to victory in the previous two rounds of the championship.

The entry list features several WRC2 title protagonists including Oliver Solberg, current points leader Yohan Rossel, Nikolay Gryazin, Gus Greensmith and Fabrizio Zaldivar.

The round will also mark the return of WRC Rally1 driver Pierre-Louis Loubet, who has agreed a deal to drive a Ford Fiesta Rally2 for M-Sport, which sees him rejoin the team he competed with Rally1 in 2023.