World rally champion Kalle Rovanpera will head into Saturday leading RallyPortugal after an incident-filled opening day on the rough gravel stages. Full WRC report ⬇️
Drama struck Friday morning’s rally leader Tanak on the opening test of the afternoon, a repeat of the day’s first stage. The Estonian’s front right tyre came off the rim which cost the M-Sport driver 50.4s seconds while he powered on through the stage.
His team-mate Sordo emerged as his nearest rival, 3.0s shy, although the Spaniard admitted he was driving with tyre preservation in mind. Although, Tanak’s tyre problem shot Sordo to the overall rally lead.Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport The rally lead changed hands for the fourth time in five stages when Rovanpera came to the fore to win stage five.
The Rally1 field was split by 12.9s with Evans, continuing his damage limitation programme as road sweeper. Rovanpera’s tyre fears were unfortunately realised by Evans and Lappi. The former suffered damage to his right rear while Lappi’s right rear suffered a slow puncture in the stage. The Finn, who said he hit “one of 10 million rocks” was lucky to only lose 5.4s and maintain fifth overall.
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