WRC – Ogier snatches Portugal lead after Tänak heartbreak

Sébastien Ogier has a surprise advantage during the night in Vodafone Rally in Portugal after the hopes of Ott Tänak of a long -awaited victory were faded by an assisted steering failure on Saturday afternoon.

Tänak had led the gravel accessory since Friday morning and responded from a difficult beginning to this penultimate stage to gain three consecutive stages and rebuild a two -digit advantage. When heading to the penultimate test, Amarant 2, the Hyundai driver firmly seemed control, but everything got rid of the longest stage of the rally.

An assisted management problem reached the middle of the 22.10 km test, which forced Tänak to fight his I20 N Rally1 until the end. It fell more than 45 seconds and resigned from the advantage that had fought so hard to build, falling into third place in general in the process.

Ogier, who had passed, the day he followed Tänak, salsaly found himself in the front. The eight -time world champion now leads the rally for 27.6 seconds in the six -stage final on Sunday and is on the edge of a seventh Vodafone Rally rally from Portugal Triumph.

“It is not the way you want to win any fight,” Ogier said. “We were both pressing very hard, that’s the game. We tried to maintain pressure on, even if he was a little faster. At the end of the previous stage, I really told my engineer:” Honestly, anything can be happy, it’s happy about Thepe Thepe Thepe Theepe. ON “.” “

“I’m not happy,” he continued. “I don’t want to celebrate this way. I just hope you can still recover as much as possible, it’s not over. Tomorrow is a long day.”

Tänak said: “It’s part of the game, I suppose. Very unfortunate, but we cool everything on our side.”

Kalle Rovanperä got on the second, 8.5 seconds from Tänak. The star of Toyota had started the day in room, but exceeded the duration of Takamoto Katsuta in the morning and gradually made it clear as the day progressed.

Katsuta’s rhythm vanished in the afternoon, and dropped behind Thierry Neuville de Hyundai, who went up to fourth place in the penultimate stage. The Belgian now follows Rovanperä for 17.0 seconds, with Katsuta another 2.2 seconds in the fifth place.

The leader of the championship, Elfyn Evans, suffered another difficult day and is the seventh in general behind Sami Pajari. After wasting time as Friday opening, Evans fought again to find a rhythm despite a better initial position on Saturday and now follows Pajari for 17.5 seconds.

Josh Mcerlean moved to the eighth, the building conforms to the M-Sport Ford, Grégoire Munster colleague, in the opening stage. The Irish ended on the 28.5 seconds ahead in his intra-echipo duel. Oliver Solberg completed the classification table in the tenth and continued to dominate the FIA ​​WRC2 category, maintaining a 50.1 second margin about Gust Greensmith.

In addition to overcoming the order of FIA WRC3, the member of the Talent Detection Program of FIA Rally Star, Taylor Gill, leads FIA Junior WRC.

Vodafone Rally of Portugal, five round of the FIA ​​2025 World Rally Championship, concludes tomorrow (Sunday) with six stages on a competitive distance or 72.16 kilometers.