Toyota’s Ott Tanak leads Rally Portugal overnight after taking victory in Thursday’s superspecial stage at Lousada.
Tanak, who claimed his third career win at the previous round in Argentina, completed the 3.3km stage in 2m34.3s.
He competed against Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen in the penultimate heat. Championship leader Sebastien Ogier entered the stage in the final heat but ended up 0.4s adrift of Tanak’s benchmark, finishing second.
Teemu Suninen finished with an identical time to his M-Sport team-mate Ogier. Having completed his run in heat six and being only the second WRC entry to tackle the stage, Suninen had occupied the top of the timesheet for much of the session.
Mikkelsen finished fourth, 1.4s adrift of Tanak, with Citroen’s Kris Meeke again setting an identical time. Thierry Neuville was sixth, a further tenth behind after having competed directly against Ogier in the final heat.
In seventh and 1.6s behind the pacesetter were Elfyn Evans and Dani Sordo. Evans damaged a cooling pack at the front of the car in shakedown which had to be repaired prior to the stage.
Mads Ostberg, who was the first WRC entry to head onto the stage, finished ninth, followed by Esapekka Lappi in 10th.
Entering his first rally since Sweden in February, Hayden Paddon ended the stage in 11th and slowest of the four WRC Hyundai’s, with Craig Breen in 12th.
Shakedown pacesetter Jari-Matti Latvala stalled at the final hairpin on his run. He ended the evening 3.9s behind his Toyota team-mate Tanak and will investigate the reasons behind the “strange” stall.
WRC2 leader after the opening stage is Skoda’s Pontus Tidemand, who was 1.2s clear of his nearest rival Gus Greensmith.
