Tough battle for victory and podium: Kalle Rovanperä dominated the Portuguese Rally! How did our legionnaires Prokop and Cais finish?

The WRC celebrates its 50th anniversary season this year. The Portuguese rally was also the fourth event of the season to be dominated somewhat convincingly by Finnish driver Kalle Rovanperä, leaving his teammate Elfyn Evans and third-placed Dani Sordo behind.

The Finnish driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing dominated his third consecutive round and extended his lead at the top of the drivers’ championship.

The twenty-one-year-old highly talented Finnish driver won by 15 seconds over teammate Evans.

It should be noted, even at the beginning of the weekend, Rovanperä was still almost 20 seconds behind last year’s world runner-up! However, he was able to gradually close the gap on Evans, and in the penultimate stage he even got ahead of him into first place.

It was on that penultimate stage, which was ridden in heavy fog and rain, that Rovanperä extended his lead at the front of the Portuguese rally. The Finnish driver won eight stages and deservedly dominated the fourth event of the season.

Dani Sordo and Takamoto Katsuta then fought a very close battle for the podium, with the Spanish driver emerging victorious.

Fifth place from the Portuguese rally goes to Thierry Neuville in a Hyundai, with his teammate Ott Tänak finishing sixth.

In the end, seventh place went to Pierre-Louis Loubet, eighth to Craig Breen, ninth to Adrien Formaux and Yohan Rossel rounded off the top ten.

Martin Prokop, making his World Championship debut this year, defended his seventeenth place in the final test. Another Czech driver, Erik Cais, picked up a big loss during the Portuguese rally and finished 42nd.

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