WRC

Rally de Portugal 2026 - Neuville wins, organisers fined

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) won the 59th Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2026, the sixth event on the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship calendar.

The result marks redemption for the Neuville and Wydaeghe following their near-win in Croatia four weeks ago, where the crew lost a deserved victory on the final stage. It is Hyundai Motorsport’s 35th win in the FIA WRC.

 Rally de Portugal was a rally of two halves; Thursday and Friday featured dry conditions on the technical gravel stages, but the arrival of rain on Saturday and Sunday brought unpredictability to proceedings.

 Neuville and Wydaeghe were within touching distance of the provisional podium after Thursday’s three stages. Although they briefly sat in sixth on Friday morning, they quickly recovered to second by the end of the day. They stayed in touch on the muddy and slippery stages on Saturday and headed into Sunday 21.9 seconds off the lead. A measured approach on Sunday was rewarded when rally leader Sébastien Ogier collected a puncture on SS22, enabling the Belgians to take first place. Neuville and Wydaeghe ended their weekend with a flourish on the Power Stage, narrowly losing out on the fastest time to team-mate Adrien Fourmaux.

 Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria made a strong start to the event, taking the first stage win of the rally and finishing Thursday in second overall. They stormed into the lead of the rally on Friday, but a double puncture on SS8 Góis brought their victory charge to an end. The Frenchmen worked hard to maintain sixth place on Saturday, scoring two stage victories along the way. Super Sunday brought another stage win on an eventful SS22, which saw Fourmaux and Coria promoted to fourth as two Toyota crews hit trouble. A committed final run through the Power Stage confirmed their fifth stage win of the weekend, and third position in the Super Sunday standings.

Thierry Neuville managed to take advantage of the tyre puncture of the then leader Sébastien Ogier (Toyota GR Yaris Rally 1) on the penultimate stage to take the lead in Rally Portugal, managing to cross the finish ramp in first place. This is the first victory celebration for the Hyundai team this year.

The Toyota factory team recorded a double podium in Portugal. Second place was won by Oliver Solberg (Toyota GR Yaris Rally 1), which was Solberg's first podium after his victory in Monte Carlo, while Elfyn Evans (Toyota GR Yaris Rally 1) climbed to the bottom step of the podium in Portugal, taking over the championship lead.

The Hyundai team's potential in Portugal was first demonstrated by Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai i20 N Rally1), who took the lead on Friday morning, but a mistake in the afternoon program cost him almost half a minute of lost time and that's where his dreams of winning in Portugal disappeared. In the end, he had to settle for fourth place, ahead of Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota GR Yaris Rally 1) and Sebastien Ogier (Toyota GR Yaris Rally 1).

The organizer of the Rally Portugal - Automóvel Club de Portugal (ACP), failed to prevent a serious safety lapse during the competition, which resulted in a fine of 15,000 euros. Namely, during the seventh special stage (Arganil 2 - 18.62 km), two unauthorized vehicles entered the track closed to traffic. First, a tow truck, which was supposed to pick up a damaged vehicle, was taken onto the special stage route due to a driver's error using GPS. The truck passed three military police checkpoints without incident, and when the truck driver saw Elfyn Evans approaching at high speed, he swerved off the track, after which he became ill. 

About half an hour later, the owner of a "towing service" entered the closed speedway in his Mercedes with the aim of helping his employee, which led to the cancellation of the special stage - a red flag was raised. The organiser released the towing service from all its contractual obligations on the spot, but the question remains as to how the unauthorised entry of the vehicle into the special stage was not immediately reported to the competition control. The incident is now the subject of an investigation by the FIA ​​safety committee.

Rally Portugal 2026 - Objective:

1. Neuville Thierry / Wydaeghe Martijn Hyundai i20 N Rally1 3:53:01.7

2. Solberg Oliver / Edmondson Elliott Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +16.3

3. Evans Elfyn / Martin Scott Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +29.1

4. Fourmaux Adrien / Coria Alexandre Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +54.8

5. Katsuta Takamoto / Johnston Aaron Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1:12.6

6. Ogier Sebastien / Landais Vincent Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1:26.6

7. Pajari Sami / Salminen Marko Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +2:50.9

8. Sordo Dani / Carrera Cándido Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +4:10.0

9. Sesks Mārtiņš / Francis Renārs Ford Puma Rally1 +6:49.2

10. Suninen Teemu / Hussi Janni Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 +11:13.8

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