Finnish Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) took the lead in the Portugal Rally, fifth round of the world championship, with a small second ahead of his teammate, Frenchman Sébastien Ogier, on Friday in Mortagua, in the center of the country.
At the end of the ninth special, the Finnish prodigy and winner of the last two editions, achieved a cumulative time of 1 h 25 min 00 sec 4/10th to beat by a breath the eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier, already five times winner of the event (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017). The Japanese team was competitive since it placed a third driver, the Japanese Takamoto Katsuta, on the podium for the day at 4.7 seconds.
The Belgian Thierry Neuville, in the lead at the start of the day the day after his victory in the inaugural special, completely lost ground. The Hyundai driver is now in 6th place in the standings, 18.1 seconds behind the leader.
