Frenchman Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) took control of the Portugal Rally on Saturday, the fifth round of the WRC world championship, and will chase the absolute record for victories in this event on Sunday.
The French driver, who only competes in certain races in the WRC, has entered his name on the Portuguese rally list five times (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017), a record that he currently co-holds. with the Finn Markku Alen, a figure in the rally world of the 1970s and 1980s at the wheel of Fiat and Lancia.
The eight-time world champion will approach the first of the four special stages on Sunday with a lead of 11 sec 9 over Finnish Ott Tanak (Hyundai), briefly in the lead on Saturday at the end of the 12th special.
Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) completes the provisional podium, more than a minute behind Ogier. The Frenchman’s teammate at Toyota, the Finnish Kalle Rovanperä, who finished Friday’s stage in the lead, however had a dark Saturday, making a mistake in the 11th special. He and his teammate escaped unscathed, but not their car.
Another Toyota driver, the Japanese Takamoto Katsuta, who was third on Friday evening, broke his rear suspension in the following special, seeing his podium dreams disappear. “It was a good day. It was tricky, we didn’t expect so much to happen today (Saturday). Unfortunately for Toyota, it wasn’t a perfect day. For me it was good, but we lost two cars,” commented Ogier.
