Oliver Solberg made a strong start to Rally de Portugal, ending Thursday’s short opening leg of three stages with a 3.4sec advantage over Adrien Fourmaux.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver took control after SS2, where his fastest time on the day’s longest test moved him into the lead. After three stages and 37.25km of competition, Solberg led Adrien Fourmaux with Sébastien Ogier, Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans split by just three-tenths behind.
Fourmaux was quickest out of the blocks on the opening stage, edging road-opener Evans by just 0.1sec. Solberg was only another tenth behind, while Dani Sordo and Sami Pajari completed the early top five.
Solberg produced the benchmark time on Sever – Albergaria, beating Neuville by 1.4sec and taking 3.6sec out of Fourmaux to move into the rally lead.
With no overnight service following the evening’s super special, Solberg took no risks on the short mixed-layout test and protected his lead. Ogier and Evans shared the fastest time there, but the gaps remained tight at the front.
“I just tried to be clean and take it easy,” Solberg explained. “We have no service [overnight], so you don’t want to touch anything. It has been an okay start. It’s a long way to go and every day is going to be different.”
Ogier ended the day third overall, 7.2sec from the lead, after recovering from a difficult opening stage lacking confidence in his GR Yaris Rally1. The seven-time Portugal winner had complained about the balance of his GR Yaris Rally1 but found some improvement as the afternoon progressed.
“It wasn’t the ideal start for us,” he admitted. “We really struggled in the first stage and we managed to change the car a bit in the second. We were fighting a bit this afternoon. We have to try to do better tomorrow.”
Neuville was fourth, just 0.2sec behind Ogier, after a more encouraging start for Hyundai Motorsport. The Belgian was second-fastest on SS2 and remained within 7.4sec of the lead despite losing time with a half-spin on the final stage.
Evans completed the top five, 7.5sec down, after a solid performance opening the road on Portugal’s loose gravel. Pajari was sixth after admitting he lacked full confidence in the balance of his Toyota, while Sordo held seventh and was encouraged by the feeling in his Hyundai.
Takamoto Katsuta ended the day eighth, 15.9sec from the lead, ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean and Jon Armstrong. Mārtiņš Sesks was just 0.1sec further back in 11th after a cautious return to Rally1 competition.
In WRC2, Jan Solans set the early pace, with Nikolay Gryazin, Alejandro Cachón and Yohan Rossel all close behind after the opening loop.
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