Ott Tänak claimed his 400th career stage win on the final stage of Rally Portugal on Friday afternoon on his way to a seven second lead over Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais with Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston completing the provisional podium.
The Estonian led the rally from stage two onwards after winning the opening two stages in the morning. There was a frenetic fight for the lead between Tänak and his Hyundai teammates Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria after the French duo took the next two stage wins to narrow the gap to 0.2 seconds after stage five.
The gap between first and second stayed under one second over the next pair of stages until disaster struck in stage eight when Fourmaux clipped a hidden rock on the inside of a hairpin which broke his i20 N’s suspension.
“If there were as many championship titles as stage wins, it would be even better,” Tänak joked of his 400 stage win landmark. “But still, a nice number. It’s been demanding, especially the second loop. We couldn’t really find the sweet spot and were struggling a bit. But the last two stages were clean, so that’s good.”
Six-time Rally Portugal winner Ogier won four stages and moved into second position with Katsuta, who briefly took second overall, ending the day in third after dropping back over the final stage of the long day; It was close between the Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers, with Katsuta just 0.7 seconds behind Ogier after stage five.
Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were a steady fourth and within shouting distance of the trio ahead, just under half a minute off the lead.
Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe ended the day in fifth, 4.4 seconds behind Rovanpera after an early spin cost a few seconds; the defending champion clawed his way back from seventh as he fettled his Hyundai’s handling more to his liking as the day wore on.
Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen took sixth position off Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin in the final stage, compounding Evans’ misery of opening the road, leaving the championship leader 69 seconds off the pace.
Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean ended in eighth and ninth respectively for M-Sport Ford with Oliver Solberg rounding out the top ten and leading WRC2.
There was disappointment for shakedown pacesetter Mārtiņš Sesks, whose day unravelled early with a wheel change on SS2. His troubles worsened when he picked up a three-minute time penalty later in the leg.
Saturday’s route features seven more gruelling stages, covering 122.92 competitive kilometres — including two passes through the iconic Amarante test.
Standings after Friday (SS11 /24):
1. O Tänak / M Järveoja EST Hyundai i20 N 1h 41m 26.2s
2. S Ogier / V Landais FRA Toyota GR Yaris +7.0s
3. T Katsuta / A Johnston JPN Toyota GR Yaris +27.1s
4. K Rovanperä / J Halttunen FIN Toyota GR Yaris +28.3s
5. T Neuville / M Wydaeghe BEL Hyundai i20 N +32.7s
6. S Pajari / M Salminen FIN Toyota GR Yaris +1m 1.4s
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