The Rally of Portugal, the fourth round of the World Rally Championship (WRC), started this Friday. The first day included eight stages for a total of 121.67 kilometres. And what a day!
And Elfyn Evans (Toyota) in great shape to start the day, a Sebastien Loeb (Ford), then in the lead, who touches a wall at the very beginning of the fifth special, cascading punctures, for Sebastien Ogier (Toyota) and Ott Tanak (Hyundai) for example, drivers who visit the roadsides, in particular Craig Breen (Ford) and Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota).
On the Belgian side, bad luck hit Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) during the eighth special, the penultimate of the day. Second on the road, the Belgian occupied a good second place in the standings… before falling to seventh place following a transmission problem costing him 1 minute and 30 seconds.