Sebastien Ogier and Vincent Landais reeled off the remaining four stages on Sunday to take the Frenchman’s tally to six of the famous gravel Rally de Portugal and his career tally to 60 WRC victories.
Starting the day with an 11.9 second lead over Hyundai’s Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja, Ogier quickly gapped another 6.2 seconds on the day’s opening stage, allowing the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver to control the pace in the early morning foggy stages.
Tänak threw caution to the wind in Fafe 1, clawing back 4.5 seconds and another 3.5 seconds in the penultimate stage, but with just 11km left, Ogier had it in the bag barring any unforeseen last minute moments.
The Wolf Power Stage was the scene for the final showdown which was won by Thierry Neuville/Martin Wydaeghe, just 0.1 seconds ahead Tänak.
Tänak took the Super Sunday spoils and the seven points that go with it and while Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin still hold second in the standings, the heat has been turned up as the Estonian is only seven points adrift.
Neuville’s third place podium finish opens up the gap in the championship standings over Evans – who was six points adrift heading to the Iberian Peninsula to 24.
Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria continued their fine form, snatching fourth place in the day’s first stage, powering their M-Sport Ford Puma through the fog with confidence, something lacking in Dani Sordo with limited visibility.
Evans was a lackluster sixth after myriad problems including Scott Martin mislaying his pace notes, a puncture and an overheating engine.
Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov was the first WRC2 car home but he had not nominated the event for Driver’s Championship points.
Taking a maiden WRC2 win – and a first for Toyota’s GR Yaris WRC2 machine, was a delighted Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuan who pipped the Irish pair of Joshua Mcerlean/James Fulten’s Skoda Fabia RS, which was also the Irishman’s first WRC2 podium as was third placed Lauri Joona/Janni Hussi in another Fabia RS.
