Charles Rainford took his second win of the season with a win in race three at Oulton Park. He held off Hyundai pair Ricky Collard and Tom Ingram to consolidate third in the championship standings.
Rainford made an excellent start from third on the grid to pass Osborne and go second into Cascades. The Safety Car was deployed when Aron Taylor-Smith and Adam Morgan collided. The Toyota left turn one sideways and collected Morgan’s Mercedes, summing up the latter’s atrocious weekend. Nicholas Hamilton impressively avoided the sliding Morgan.
On the restart, Rainford showed pace in his BMW as he took the lead of the race passing Smiley around the outside at Cascades. Ricky Collard passed Smiley for second at Lodge.
Smiley’s descent down the grid continued with both Ingram and Cammish moving past him at Lodge before the second Safety Car intervention on lap nine. Tom Chilton was trying to stay out the way of Lewis Selby’s Ford, but the pair collided going into Cascades and ended up beached in the gravel.
On the second restart on lap 13, Rainford pulled away from Collard in second. Ingram held his own in third as Cammish was being hounded by Josh Cook. The Toyota man started 15th and was impressively fighting for fourth.
Rainford held on for the win, with Collard second and Ingram third, cutting Ash Sutton’s championship lead down to 48 points. Cammish was fourth with Cook fifth. Dan Rowbottom and Chris Smiley had a titanic battle but the Plato Mercedes of Rowbottom prevailed.
Dexter Patterson, Sutton and Aidan Moffat rounded out the top ten. Mikey Doble was 11th with Nicholas Hamilton finishing an impressive 12th. The final points places went to Sam Osborne, James Dorlin and Daryl De Leon.
Ash Sutton dominated race two at Oulton Park to take his fifth win of the season. He won at a canter, taking the lead on lap three and strolling to a win by 19 ahead of second placed title rival Tom Ingram.
On the start Sutton surged from seventh to fifth, dispatching of the PMR pair of Mike Doble and Aiden Moffat. Josh Cook slipped down the order over the course of the race from second on the grid, with Ingram and Aron Taylor-Smith passing the Toyota man. Sutton then passed him at the end of lap one.
Taylor-Smith was Sutton’s next target, and he made it easy for the championship leader as he went wide at the Island hairpin to take third. Ingram was next in his hit list for second place and he wasted little time.
The Ford man passed Ingram into Cascades with an excellently crafted move. He got the better exit out of turn one and the run on Ingram gave him the best line for second place.
Sutton’s team mate Dan Cammish duly moved aside for Sutton to pass into the final corner at Lodge.
There was a hairy moment for Tom Chilton as he was fighting Taylor-Smith for fourth. Going into the high speed Cascades Chilton got onto the grass and slid at speed across the circuit. Thankfully the veteran missed the barriers and managed to continue.
Ingram, now seeing title rival Sutton pulling away, was keen to pass Cammish, but the Ford man was doing an incredible job defending for his team mate.
Taylor-Smith was fighting for his life to hold onto fourth. He had Daryl De Leon, Doble, and team mate Gordon Shedden on his tail as he made the Corolla as wide as he could.
On lap 11 De Leon passed Taylor-Smith for fourth as Shedden also made his way past. At the front Ingram finally made it past Cammish on lap 13 into Lodge but Sutton was long gone, 13 seconds down the road.
Sutton strolled to the win, largely unfazed despite rain starting to fall in the last two laps. Ingram finished second with Cammish third.
De Leon came home fourth with Doble and Shedden close behind. Taylor-Smith finished seventh despite some excellent defensive driving. Ricky Collard, Dexter Patterson and Charles Rainford rounded off the top ten.
Sam Osborne, Chris Smiley, Dan Rowbottom, James Dorlin and Lewis Shelby rounded off the points.
Dan Cammish inherited the Race to Pole victory at Oulton Park due to polesitter Aron Taylor-Smith being penalised mid-race.
The NAPA Ford driver started the race second behind Taylor-Smith, who secured pole in qualifying. Cammish kept the Irishman honest up front, and following a Safety Car period, Taylor-Smith weaved on the lead up to the restart, which is not allowed. He was handed a five second penalty and fell to fifth at the chequered flag.
Cammish, often the understudy to team mate Ash Sutton, gratefully inherited the win, with Sutton banking key points to extend his championship lead.
At the start Josh Cook made an excellent leap off the grid to be third, passing Mikey Doble to be third. Tom Chilton was in the wars, spinning off on the run to the island hairpin, he recovered to finish 12th.
Gordon Shedden and Dan Rowbottom collided at the Hislop chicane, effectively retiring Shedden and Rowbottom languished around the back of the pack.
Lap two saw the Safety Car come out as Nicholas Hamilton crashed on the way down to the Island hairpin, ending his race in the wall.
After a three lap intermission, battle resumed, once the Safety Car’s lights went out and peeled away, Taylor-Smith up front started weaving, which is often used as a method of distraction to make sure the driver behind can’t tell when you’re going to apply the throttle and restart the race. The stewards handed the Toyota driver a five second penalty, the second time in four Race to Poles that the leader wouldn’t win the race following Tom Ingram’s penalty at Donington Park.
On the restart Sutton squeezed round outside of Doble for fourth, with title rival Ingram soon following suit.
Lap eight saw a small flashpoint between Sutton and Ingram. Heading into the final corner, Ingram pushed into the back of Sutton and sent him wide. Thankfully the championship leader kept it on track and Ingram, perhaps fearing a hefty penalty, allowed Sutton back through.
There was a heart-in-mouth moment for Sam Osborne in the third Ford Focus Saloon as he got onto the grass at Cascades, bouncing and drifting across the grass and thankfully avoiding any other drivers.
Taylor-Smith was doing all he could to bridge the gap knowing he had five seconds to find. He couldn’t as Cammish inherited the win, with Josh Cook second, Sutton third and Ingram fourth with Taylor-Smith demoted to fifth.
PMR’s Mikey Doble and Dexter Patterson sandwiched Plato Racing’s Adam Morgan for sixth and eighth with Aiden Moffat in the third PMR Audi ninth and Chris Smiley rounding out the top ten in his Hyundai.
Pos
Name
Team
Car
1
Dan CAMMISH
NAPA Racing
Ford Focus Saloon
2
Josh COOK
Speedworks Corolla Racing
Toyota Corolla
3
Ash SUTTON
NAPA Racing
Ford Focus Saloon
4
Tom INGRAM
Team Vertu
Hyundai i30N
5*
Aron TAYLOR-SMITH
Laser Tools Racing
Toyota Corolla
6
Mikey DOBLE
Power Maxed Racing
Audi S3 Saloon
7
Adam MORGAN
Cataclean Plato Racing
Mercedes A35 AMG
8
Dexter PATTERSON
Power Maxed Racing
Audi S3 Saloon
9
Aiden MOFFAT
Power Maxed Racing
Audi S3 Saloon
10
Chris SMILEY
Restart Racing
Hyundai i30N
11
James DORLIN
Restart Racing
Hyundai i30N
12
Tom CHILTON
Team Vertu
Hyundai i30N
13
Ricky COLLARD
Team Vertu
Hyundai i30N
14
Charles RAINFORD
WSR
BMW 330i M Sport
15
Lewis SELBY
NAPA Racing
Ford Focus Saloon
16
Daryl DELEON
WSR
BMW 330i M Sport
17
Dan ROWBOTTOM
Cataclean Plato Racing
Mercedes A35 AMG
9
Sam OSBORNE
NAPA Racing
Ford Focus Saloon
DNF
Gordon SHEDDEN
Laser Tools Racing
Toyota Corolla
DNF
Nicholas HAMILTON
Team VERTU
Hyundai i30N
* Aron Taylor-Smith handed five second penalty, finished first but demoted to fifth.
Elfyn Evans extended his lead in the World Rally Championship standings with victory at the Forum8 Rally Japan.
In an event dominated by Toyota in their homeland, the Welshman took the lead on stage two and never looked back. He showed great consistency and skill to take his his third Rally Japan win , the 13th of his career, and on the final tarmac event of the Rally1 era.
Held on tarmac over the course of 20 stages, Rally Japan is set on tight and twisty asphalt roads lined by trees; there’s little room for error.
It was reigning champion Seb Ogier who was fastest on the pre-event shakedown, with Toyota laying down the marker from the start.
Home hero Takamoto Katsuta couldn’t have had a worse start to the rally. A puncture on Special Stage One before he slid off on SS3, losing him 43 seconds and with it, a chance of victory.
Hyundai, fresh off victory in the previous round in Portugal with Thierry Neuville, struggled throughout the event, with Neuville, Hayden Paddon and Adrien Fourmaux all suffering with understeer on day one. The hard tyres once the rain cleared just weren’t giving Neuville the grip he needed.
Evans ended Day One with a 15 second lead over Oliver Solberg with Ogier third. Neuville sat fourth after a difficult opening day.
Solberg came out firing on Day Two, he went fastest on SS7, the first run through Obara before Evans fought back taking victory on SS8. Solberg responded once again with another stage win on SS9, another run through Obara. However that would be the end of Solberg’s involvement on Saturday. He was fighting too hard when he lost the back end on a left hand turn and clipped a tree on the outside, ruining his rear right wheel.
Sami Pajari was having a quiet rally, fifth at the end of Day One, he found pace to win SS11 and stake his claim for a podium spot now Solberg was out.
Hyundai and Ford couldn’t get near the Toyota drivers all weekend, with neither team managing to secure a stage win.
On the Fujoka Special Stage, Evans had his only slip up the whole rally. He took a left hand bend too quickly and almost understeered into a barrier. The Welshman got away with it with an incredible near miss.
He held a 17 second lead over Ogier by the end of Day Two.
Hyundai were settled in fifth, sixth and seventh in the overall standings, as Sunday belonged to the returning Solberg. Reeling from his Day Two retirement, the young Swede fought back to take maximum Sunday points, with victory on the Wolf Power Stage too.
Ogier ended the rally strong, and kept chipping away at Evans’ lead, but it wasn’t enough to overthrow the championship leader. Evans took victory, and extended his championship lead over Katsuta, who finished the event in fourth.
Gordon Shedden used all of his experience to take a determined win in Round 9 of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
Shedden started on a reverse grid pole and his Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport Toyota came under significant pressure from championship leader Ash Sutton late on, while Tom Ingram was third on the road as he charged from last on the grid, before a track limits penalty dropped him to 8th. Daryl De Leon of WSR inherited third position.
The three-time champion did well to ward off the challenges of the Cataclean Plato Racing duo of Dan Rowbottom and Adam Morgan in the early laps before they faded late on, and led a peaceful existence in the lead until Sutton passed Morgan with an excellent move into Agostini.
From there it was the boost-laden Toyota against the Ford/Sutton combination with only a single lap of boost to its name, and it looked as if Sutton would win out as a move around the outside at Turn One briefly had him in the lead, but Shedden held the inside to repel an inspired Sutton.
Further back, it was a return to form for the West Surrey Racing BMW duo of Daryl De Leon and Charles Rainford, as they climbed from 10th and 8th on the grid to record 3rd and 5th place finishes respectively either side of Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley.
Morgan fell back to 6th as his boost ran out with Tom Chilton 7th. The top 10 was rounded out by Dan Cammish’s 9th placed NAPA Racing Ford Focus and Rowbottom, who faded badly on medium tyres.
It was an emotional podium at the end of race three, as Nicholas Hamilton won the Jack Sears Trophy in scenes that united the entire BTCC paddock.
Ash Sutton took a remarkable British Touring Car Championship victory from 11th on the grid in a chaotic Race 2 at Snetterton to extend his lead at the top of the Championship to 48 points.
He led home Team Vertu duo Ricky Collard and Tom Chilton, while Suttons championship rival Tom Ingram in another Vertu Hyundai retired with a loss of drive, after a significant lock up on lap 8 saw him drop from the lead to 5th under pressure from Sutton’s NAPA Ford.
The race started with Ingram making an early move on polesitter Charles Rainford after holding off the other WSR BMW of Daryl De Leon, and the race seemed to settle down as De Leon held back the NAPA Ford of Dan Cammish and Ricky Collard’s fast starting Hyundai, while Josh Cook dropped back from fourth on the grid in his Toyota Gazoo Racing Corolla.
That all changed midway through the race.
Sutton had been steadily gaining places after his start took him to 8th from 11th and once he eventually deposed Collard from 5th, he was quickly into the medium shod and comparatively boost starved BMWs of De Leon and Rainford, with Cammish passing De Leon for third on lap 6.
De Leon quickly fell backwards as Sutton and Rowbottom both shuffled the BMW backwards, where he would eventually end up tenth.
Sutton easily dealt with teammate Cammish and Rainford’s BMW before he attacked Ingram into Riches. Ingram covered off the inside but on the brakes into Wilson, he locked up and went off to allow Sutton, Cammish, Collard and Chilton through.
An alternator failure on lap 10 proved Ingram’s undoing, while Collard and Chilton both passed Cammish at the end of the race to get onto the podium.
Gordon Shedden in the Laser Tools with MB Motorsport Toyota was seventh overall to take Independent honours ahead of Rainford in 8th.
West Surrey Racing’s Charles Rainford took his second career victory in Race One of the day’s British Touring Car Championship action.
Rainford won yesterday’s pole race and was never troubled after an excellent start to win ahead of Vertu Hyundai’s Tom Ingram, while Rainford’s WSR teammate Daryl De Leon was a storming third from sixth on the grid.
The result sees Sutton’s lead at the top over Ingram fall to 26 points ahead of last season’s champion Ingram, while Rainford is now third overall and atop of the Independents’ Championship.
They were followed by Josh Cook in fourth ahead of Dan Cammish, while Dan Rowbottom reacted to a tough Brands Hatch weekend with 6th place.
Tom Chilton lead home Vertu Hyundai teammate Ricky Collard, while James Dorlin continued his good form in his Restart Racing Hyundai with 9th ahead of NAPA Racing’s Sam Osborne.
Ingram passed Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Josh Cook for second on the opening lap with an excellent switch back move on the Snetterton 300’s tight and twisty infield section, but settled for second stating later that “there was an adult in his head” when thinking about chasing the BMW in the lead.
De Leon in his fast starting BMW passed the Cataclean Plato Racing Mercedes of Dan Rowbottom off the line for fifth but didn’t make any further moves until a blistering lap 9.
There, he first despatched Dan Cammish’s NAPA Racing Ford at the end of the Bentley straight into Brundle, before a lovely late braking move on Cook’s Toyota into Agostini half a lap later.
Further back, championship leader Ashley Sutton recovered to 11th from last on the grid following technical troubles in yesterday’s Race to Pole, in no small part due to a stunning lap 1 in which he gained 8 places to move up to 13th.
Charles Rainford will start from pole position following victory in the BTCC Race To Pole at Snetterton on Saturday afternoon.
Rainford led home Toyota Gazoo’s Josh Cook and Tom Ingram’s VERTU Hyundai, while Championship leader Ashley Sutton suffered a technical issue to drop to the back of the field.
The result sees Ingram close the gap between himself and Sutton in the standings to 39 points, with the Ford driver still in a very strong position after just six rounds.
WSR BMW driver Rainford passed Vertu Hyundai’s Tom Chilton on lap 1 in a move that ultimately relegated to polesitter to 6th on the first lap, with Cook, Ingram, Ash Sutton and Cammish all profiting from a robust move around the Snetterton 300’s infield section.
Chilton would receive a 5s penalty for a starting offence to drop to eighth at race end, while Cammish bump drafted teammate Sutton to third into Nelson’s on the first lap as the field jostled for position.
Sutton suffered a tyre failure on lap 3 at Murrays to relinquish third and headed to the pit lane to correct this, and he will start from 21st after suffering similar trouble at the season opening Donington Park round.
He finished Race One in 2nd on that occasion, but with the lowest Toca Boost available of anyone in the field he’ll have it all to do to repeat that feat.
Provisional Starting Grid For Round 7 of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton:
Charles Rainford, West Surrey Racing
Josh Cook, Toyota Gazoo Racing
Tom Ingram, Team Vertu
Dan Cammish, Alliance NAPA Racing UK
Dan Rowbottom, Cataclean Plato Racing
Daryl De Leon, West Surrey Racing
Adam Morgan, Cataclean Plato Racing
Tom Chilton, Team Vertu
James Dorlin, Restart Racing
Sam Osborne, Alliance NAPA Racing UK
Dexter Patterson, Steel Seal With Power Maxed Racing
Ricky Collard, Team Vertu
Gordon Shedden, Laser Tools with MB Motorsport
Chris Smiley, Restart Racing
Mikey Doble, LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing
Nicholas Hamilton, Team Vertu
Lewis Selby, Alliance NAPA Racing UK
Max Buxton, Toyota Gazoo Racing
Aiden Moffat, LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing
We came then to the final day of this amazing rally and with almost 67 kilometres over four stages to run, what would they hold for the crews? Josh and Eoin would return to the action and open the road throughout the stages after the M-Sport Ford team completed rebuilding the Puma at around three o’clock. It was an amazing feat from the team.
First up was SS20 Vieira do Minho 1 and the rain which was expected had arrived making the stage super tricky. Elfyn would set the pace from Oliver and Thierry whilst rally leader Seb was fifth. The Frenchman saw his lead trimmed to just over fourteen seconds. It was a good start to the day from Elfyn who led the super Sunday standings from Oliver.
The first run of SS21 Fafe 1 saw the rain move through the stage changing the road surface. Josh set the pace from Martins for the Rally1 crews. However incredibly the later Rally2 crews came through with better road conditions and the Irishman’s time was beaten by Robert Virves by almost nine seconds in his Skoda Fabia. Interestingly Seb added a few seconds to his lead over Thierry as they set the sixth and twelfth fastest time respectively. Meanwhile, Elfyn continued to lead the super Sunday standings from Oliver.
Then it was back to SS22 Vieira do Minho 2 and there was more rain coming through the stage as the crews came through. Adrien was fastest of the crews from Takamoto and Oliver. Elfyn was fifth fastest and almost eighteen seconds slower than Adrien, but only around eight seconds slower than Oliver. This did mean that Oliver moved to the head of the super Sunday standings. There was drama for two of the Toyota crews though as both Seb and Sami suffered punctures and as it was early in the stage they both stopped to change the wheel over. This all meant that they dropped positions in the overall standings. Seb emerged in sixth place whilst Sami was seventh. The Frenchman’s hope for an eighth victory was gone.
We came then to the final stage, SS23 Fafe 2, the powerstage and again the rain was coming and going in the area as the crews made their way through. Adrien was set the pace from Thierry and Elfyn whilst Oliver was fourth and Seb fifth fastest. Thierry and Martijn took victory for Hyundai, their first of the year, whilst Oliver and Elliott were second and Elfyn and Scott were third.
Let’s hear from the drivers and take a look at the final finishing positions.
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“What a weekend! It has been crazy out there, and we have faced all kinds of conditions and emotions, but we have been consistent, fighting with the fastest on every stage, never really losing a lot of time. I think that is what gave us the final victory, as well as making no mistakes. We know the rally is never over until it’s over; the stress was very high on the last stage, but we made it. This win feels very special; as a team, we have been chasing this result for a while, and haven’t been rewarded, and I let the team down in Croatia. We needed to fight back, and the rally gods were with us this weekend. I’m very happy to bring home the first victory of the year for the team.”
2026 FIA World Rally Championship 06 Round, Rally de Portugal 06-10 May 2026 Photographer: Dufour Fabien Wordwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Adrien Fourmaux
“It has been a very positive weekend for the team here in Portugal, so we can be pleased to score 20 points as a crew and that Thierry and Martijn have taken the win. It’s a great result for the whole team, and with all the preparation we have done recently, I am pleased we are now enjoying some nice success. I’d like to say thank you to the team, and also thank you to the fans. It has been fantastic to see you all out in force even in the rain. Overall, it’s been a very challenging rally – but I think that’s why we love it.”
Dani Sordo
“I have to admit we are not very happy with our performance here in Portugal. It was a difficult rally with the weather, which made the conditions very slippery, and I didn’t feel good in the car. However, I am delighted for the team – everyone really deserves this victory, especially after what happened in Croatia, so very happy for this.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Oliver Solberg
“Firstly, I’m sorry to our team-mates who had been in front of us until the bad luck they had today. I think we all had our challenges this weekend. It’s been a tough event and a bit of a rollercoaster; we were up and down all weekend. After two tough rallies for me, and even if this one hasn’t been easy either, I’m very happy at least to finally be back on the podium with some good points. It’s a big relief. Thank you to the team for believing in me and our mechanics for always fixing the car.”
Elfyn Evans
“This has been a long event with very tough conditions and a lot of ups and downs. There were some moments where we had good pace, and others where I wasn’t so proud of my driving. I think there was potential for more, but we didn’t quite get it right. Our team-mates Seb and Sami have been unlucky today and I feel for them. I never want to gain positions that way, but it’s part of the sport sometimes. We’ll take the points and aim for more in Japan.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“This was a difficult weekend for us. We took a bit of a risk with the car setup at the beginning of the rally to help with my road position, and it didn’t really work out. Together with the team were able to make improvements and the feeling got much better during the weekend, but it was difficult to catch up to those ahead of us. In the end, with the bad luck our team-mates had today, we could score some decent points. Now I’m really looking forward to my home event, Rally Japan.”
Sébastien Ogier
“We had some tough luck today. In the beginning of this penultimate stage, it was very rutted and there were some rocks in the line; I don’t think we could have done much differently. Everything that we could control this weekend, I think we did it pretty well, together with the team. I think we all deserved better, but that’s rallying sometimes. Of course, when you put in so much effort it’s frustrating, but we have to forget about it and go to Japan and look to get another win there.”
Sami Pajari
“It’s disappointing what happened today, as everything had been going really well until then. From what I could see, there was a huge loose stone in the line, and we hit it and got a puncture. There was nothing much I could do. Otherwise, though it has been a good event for us. The performance was really strong, one of the best we’ve had so far. It’s always a pity when the reward doesn’t come our way, but we just need to take the many positives from this weekend and be even stronger on the next rallies.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Mārtiņš Sesks
“Looking back at the weekend, there are a lot of positives we can take from this rally. We showed consistent performance throughout the whole weekend, having some top three times each day, which demonstrates that we have a good base. Now it’s up to taking the knowledge from here and trying to put it into our next rally in Greece.”
Josh McErlean
“Rally Portugal is done and dusted. It’s been quite competitive this weekend with plenty of ups and downs. We nearly secured the stage win today in Fafe, which was special, but we were just edged out at the very last minute. We faced some issues along the way, and unfortunately hit the wall in Lousasa on Saturday night, probably the worst wall you could hit in rallying! I want to give big thanks to the whole team for their tremendous effort to get us back out today. They were up quite late last night, so thanks to all the lads and ladies for that. Japan is next, and we’re looking forward to it and getting back on Tarmac, before the summer gravel rallies.”
Jon Armstrong
“It’s disappointing to retire while we were fighting our way back into the points after the mechanical issues on Friday. The margins are fine at this level, and unfortunately this time it didn’t go our way. Portugal is a great event, but it hasn’t been my luckiest yet. I’m really looking forward to the upcoming rallies and coming back stronger.”
Mille Johansson
“We showed some really good pace in the dry conditions, but the rain made it very difficult to find a rhythm and build confidence. I think we exceeded our expectations for this rally, particularly in the dry, and I’m happy with that. There are still a few things we need to work on, but overall, it’s been a very positive rally for us.”
Romet Jürgenson
“We experienced an impact from a rock early on that broke the steering rack, leaving us without power steering. The wisest option was to retire to fix it for the next day, as there was no service available on days one and two.
“On Friday, I was able to demonstrate decent speed through the stages. Saturday was challenging with torrential rain affecting our road position, making it difficult to commit fully without risk. Sunday’s weather was more favourable, allowing us to achieve some good stage times.
“Overall, there’s still work to do in my driving, particularly on the sandy stages, to extract the best performance from the vehicle. Despite the challenges, this event was an improvement compared to last year. We’re now focused on moving forward to our next competition in Japan.”
Rally de Portugal Final Classification
1
T. Neuville
M. Wydaeghe
Hyundai i20 N Rally1
03:53:01.7
2
O. Solberg
E. Edmondson
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
+16.3
3
E. Evans
S. Martin
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
+29.1
4
A. Fourmaux
A. Coria
Hyundai i20 N Rally1
+54.8
5
T. Katsuta
A. Johnston
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
+1:12.6
6
S. Ogier
V. Landais
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
+1:26.6
7
S. Pajari
M. Salminen
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
+2:50.9
8
D. Sordo
C. Carrera
Hyundai i20 N Rally1
+4:10.0
9
M. Sesks
R. Francis
Ford Puma Rally1
+6:49.2
10
T. Suninen
J. Hussi
Toyota GR Yaris
+11:13.8
Super Sunday Classification – Rally de Portugal
1
O. Solberg
43:15.1
2
E. Evans
+4.2
3
A. Fourmaux
+4.3
4
T. Katsuta
+10.6
5
T. Neuville
+11.4
Summary
Well, what a rally we had and what a drive from Thierry and Martijn. They were there to benefit when Seb and Vincent had their puncture in the penultimate stage. The French crew in the Yaris on balance probably deserved victory but this is the way of rally and punctures are all part of the challenge.
Oliver and Elliott took a strong second position and also took the maximum points for super Sunday. This has given them a good boost of points in the championship, and they hold third in the championship.
Finally, Elfyn and Scott once again showed what a great partnership they have, taking third overall and good points as well to extend their championship lead over Takamoto and Aaron. It’s been a positive first half of the season for them and they’ll open the road next time in Japan.
2026 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 6
1
E. Evans
123
2
T. Katsuta
111
3
O. Solberg
92
4
A. Fourmaux
79
5
S. Pajari
78
6
S. Ogier
67
7
T. Neuville
65
8
E. Lappi
21
9
Y. Rossel
20
10
L. Rossel
18
2026 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 6
1
Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team
311
2
Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team
218
3
Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team 2
86
4
M-Sport Ford World Rally Team
71
Next up is Rally Japan which moves from November to May taking place over the weekend of 28 to 31 May.
Tom Ingram won his first race of the 2026 British Touring Car Championship with a dominant display at Brands Hatch.
Ingram took the win in his Vertu Racing Hyundai ahead of a hard charging Ash Sutton who took his third podium of the day in his NAPA Racing Ford, while Mikey Doble completed an excellent weekend with third overall and a victory in the Independents Championship in his LKQ Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing Audi.
Daryl De Leon was fourth for WSR ahead of Josh Cook and a recovering Adam Morgan, while Gordon Shedden recovered to seventh ahead of polesitter James Dorlin, who suffered on his medium tyres while those around him were on softs.
Ingram started the reverse grid race from fifth and was quickly up into the top two with an excellent start, and passed Sutton on the run to Clearways at the end of lap one.
He picked his way past Dorlin shortly after, while Doble then tried a double move from fourth to second – succeeding only in passing Sutton for third as Dorlin grimly held on.
That allowed Ingram to build a gap in tranquillity before Doble eventually passed Dorlin midway through the race, quickly followed by Sutton and De Leon as the Restart Racing Hyundai fell backwards.
Sutton eventually passed Doble three laps from the end but was unable to do anything about Ingram ahead, while Shedden passed Laser Tools MB Motorsport teammate Taylor-Smith and Dorlin on the final lap to steal seventh.
The weekend’s results leave Sutton on 129 points and with a mammoth 47 point lead over Ingram having finished no lower than second all season, with Mikey Doble in third on 68 points and in the lead of the Independents Championship ahead of a return to the scene of his first BTCC at Snetterton in 2025.
