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For immediate release
Thursday, May 15th, 2025

EVANS AND MARTIN EDGE INTO EARLY LEAD IN PORTUGAL

FIGUEIRA DA FOZ (PORTUGAL): The World Championship-leading duo of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin drew first blood after the short opening stage of the 58th Vodafone Rally of Portugal on the sea front at Figuera da Foz on Thursday evening.

Evans, who takes a 43-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship into a demanding three days of gravel action in Portugal, set the fastest time of 2min 18.1sec in his Toyota GR Yaris. That was enough to edge into a lead of just two-tenths of a second over a tying Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) and Ott Tänak (Hyundai).

The overnight leader will have the disadvantage of running first on the road on Friday but remains positive. “We will find out tomorrow,” he said. “We have to just try and forget the situation and try to enjoy the event. If I can just me driving well and have a good feeling in the car, that’s the priority for me.”

Nikolay Gryazin is not registered for the WRC2 on this occasion but slotted into ninth overall. Briton Gus Greensmith was the quickest of the leading classified WRC2 runners in his Škoda Fabia RS.

The ceremonial start was held in glorious sunshine adjacent to the Mondego River in Coimbra late on Thursday afternoon. The official start list featured a staggering 90 cars, comprising a dozen Priority 1 drivers in Rally1 machines, 49 Priority 2 crews, eight Priority 3 drivers, a dozen Priority 4s and an additional nine entrants running the rear of the field.

Thousand of spectators had witnessed the morning’s shakedown at Baltar and an equally impressive number were at the start in Coimbra and the opening super special stage.

Portuguese Rally Championship contender José Pedro Fontes was handed road-opening duties for the first stage, which ran over dry asphalt roads. He was followed by WRC2 drivers, Fabrizio Zaldivar, Gus Greensmith, Oliver Solberg and Yohan Rossel.

Tomorrow (Friday), sees drivers tackle a daunting 10 special stages and 146.48 competitive kilometres in what could be one of the most difficult days of a WRC event for years.

The traditional Mortágua (14.59km), Lousä (12.28km), Góis (14.30km) and Arganil (14.41km) specials will be repeated twice, split by a remote service stop, before crews tackle two new stages on the return run north to Porto.

Águeda/Sever (15.08km) and Sever/Albergaria (20.24km) hosted the event between 1995 and 1999 and will add a sting in the tail to an already punishing day’s rallying.

58th Vodafone Rally of Portugal – positions after SS1 (top 10 @ 20.50hrs):

  1. Elfyn Evans (GBR)/Scott Martin (GBR) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2min 18.1sec
  2. Sébastien Ogier (FRA)/Vincent Landais (FRA) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2min 18.3sec
  3. Ott Tänak (EST)/Martin Järveoja (EST) Hyundai i20 N Rally1     2min 18.3sec
  4. Adrien Fourmaux (FRA)/Alexandre Coria (FRA) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 2min 18.5sec
  5. Thierry Neuville (BEL)/Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 2min 18.7sec
  6. Kalle Rovanperä (FIN)/Jonne Halttunen (FIN) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2min 19.4sec
  7. Takamoto Katsuta (JPN)/Aaron Johnston (IRL) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2min 20.0sec
  8. Sami Pajari (FIN)/Marko Salminen (FIN) Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2min 22.2sec
  9. Nikolay Gryazin (BUL)/Konstantin Aleksandrov (KGZ) Škoda Fabia RS 2min 22.4sec
  10. Mārtiņš Sesks (LAT)/Renārs Francis (LAT) Ford Puma Rally1 2min 23.1sec

Ends

 

 

Published On: 15 May 2025