Onto the second day then of this classic event and the crews would have 122.92km’s over seven stages with three in the morning and the remaining in the afternoon and early evening. Adrien returned to the action and would open the road throughout the day.
First up was SS12 Vieira do Minho 1 – 17.69 km and Seb was fastest out of the blocks, setting the best time from Ott and Kalle. The double Finnish champion was able to gain one position and moved into third overall at the expense of his Japanese teammate Takamoto. Further back Josh passed his own teammate Greg and moved into eighth position.
Into SS13 Cabeceiras de Basto 1 – 19.91 km and once again Seb set the pace going fastest from Takamoto and Ott a further 2.4 seconds behind. The Frenchman was closing the gap to Ott who had a reduced lead of just two seconds. There was a swap again in positions between Takamoto who regained third position from Kalle.
The final stage of the morning then, SS14 Amarante 1 – 22.10 km and Ott hit back setting the fastest time from Kalle and Takamoto. Seb was only fifth fastest and was now 11.8 seconds from Ott. Incredibly Kalle repassed Takamoto for third place again. Further back Elfyn was losing a few seconds to his younger rookie teammate in their fight over sixth place.
After lunchtime service came the second running of SS15 Vieira do Minho 2 – 17.69 km. Ott was fastest by just three tenths of a second over Seb, the gap between them now 12.1 seconds. Kalle was third fastest and building a gap over Takamoto whose pace was not where it had been earlier. Martins in the Puma was the fastest of the three M-Sport Ford crews in the stage whilst Josh remained the highest placed driver from the team holding eighth overall.
SS16 Cabeceiras de Basto 2 – 19.91 km was next and Ott again was fastest from Seb and Thierry. Martins was again fastest of the M-Sport crews, setting the sixth best time. The top M-Sport crew remained Josh who still held eighth place.
Onto the penultimate stage then, SS17 Amarante 2 – 22.10 km and Kalle was fastest from Seb and Thierry. However, there was drama for the overall leader Ott who at around two thirds of the stage completed had a failure of his powersteering giving him a huge issue with the control of the car. In fact, Martin took over changing gear for Ott. This all meant that the lead changed after the Estonian lost 46 seconds and fell to third overall. Also gaining a position was Thierry as he passed Takamoto for fourth overall.
The final stage then, SS18 SSS Lousada – 3.52 km and Seb was fastest from Thierry and Sami. Ott managed to keep third overall with a gritty drive in the Superspecial. Greg was the top M-Sport Ford crew in this one setting the seventh fastest time.
Let’s take a look at the top ten and hear from the drivers.
Classification after Day Two
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Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Elfyn Evans
“It’s not been the day we were hoping for today. The feeling hasn’t been too bad behind the wheel, but we weren’t able to find the speed to go with it. We won’t give up though and we have to stay positive and try to find something to improve for tomorrow. The pace was there at the start of the weekend, so we have to understand why it’s gone the way it has. Tomorrow is a new day, and we’ll give it everything to push for some more points.”
Kalle Rovanperä
“It’s been quite a good day for us in the sense that we were able to gain a couple of positions, both in the overall standings and in the road order for tomorrow. We had much softer conditions than we have seen here before and the second pass was really rough, so it was tough for the tyres and the cars. We haven’t quite had the optimal speed so it might not be easy to keep Ott behind us, but of course we will try our best tomorrow to take as many points as we can.”
Sébastien Ogier
“It’s been another tough day today. This morning it was quite enjoyable but in the afternoon the conditions were so rough with huge ruts. It took a lot of effort to keep it on the road without issues and I was glad to get to the end of the day. It was not the way we would have liked to take the lead, and I really feel sorry for Ott, but it’s also part of the game in this sport and things like this can happen, especially when conditions are rough like today. We just have to focus on our job and try to finish it tomorrow on what is still a long and demanding Sunday.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“This morning I had a good comfortable feeling in the car and good pace, and I was able to have a nice fun fight with Kalle. In the afternoon, when the conditions totally changed and became rougher, it was much harder and unfortunately we lost a position. But now I just need to focus on what I can do tomorrow. The gaps are still quite close, and I will try to keep pushing and see what happens.”
Sami Pajari
“I’m quite happy with the performance that we had today. It’s not so easy to read the pace because we could see there was some road cleaning effect. The morning especially was quite enjoyable with a nice flow. This afternoon there were some extremely rough sections, which was something new for me in this car, but we managed to get through it and let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Ott Tänak
“The power steering loss was sudden, and obviously the stage still had a lot of bedrock and roughness to it, so there wasn’t anything else I could do. The first stage this morning was not so great, but after that we managed to find something that clicked. I really enjoyed driving the car out there today and was controlling the pace and feeling good grip. Obviously, our issue was very unfortunate, but we are still in the fight tomorrow.”
Thierry Neuville
“We had a solid day today. The car was feeling good, and it allowed us to push on every stage – today was strong and we are satisfied with the position we are in considering our road position. We’re never 100% happy with the pace but it was definitely there, and we were similar to Kalle despite having different tyre choices. There’s still a lot to learn about the tyres. With six stages left and now being so close to the podium, we will be going full attack tomorrow.”
Adrien Fourmaux
“It has been a mixed day for us today. It was challenging to open the road, but we found some improvements within the setup, and we are happy with the changes we made. Nevertheless, it’s frustrating when you don’t have a fight going on around you and you are just driving in a league of your own. We’re keeping our heads up and we are going into Sunday fully focused on maximising our points tomorrow.”
Round 05, Rally de Portugal
15-18 May 2025
Photographer: Dufour Fabien
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Oliver Solberg
“It’s been another good day,” said Oliver. “We had to use more of the hard tyre today and that took some more getting used to on these roads. Yesterday, there was more of a hard base to the road, but today it’s a little bit softer with some more ruts and rocks being pulled out.
“The feeling from the car on these tyres is not quite like it was yesterday, but at the same time we have a good lead and we’re just trying to manage that gap. We are trying to go around every rock, but there are quite a lot of them!
“The last stage in Lousada was really cool, like always. No donuts this time, but I hope we still managed to give everybody a bit of a show. The fans here are just incredible, it’s really like an honour to come and drive in front of them. I wanted to make some tyre smoke and slide the car a little bit.
“And there’s more of that coming tomorrow with the really famous Fafe stage. That place is just incredible – the fans have been up there and sleeping up there for days waiting to get their party started!”
Sunday
The final day will see the crews tackle six stages over 72km’s. Can Seb hold on and take a seventh victory in this rally or will there be more drama for the crews?
