This year’s Rally Portugal had an unusual flavour. The local stages with their soft gravel surface were hit by monsoon-like rain, creating demanding conditions. In those conditions, Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuán, competing in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, fought for victory in the WRC2 category right until the closing stages, but their challenge came to an end after an off-track excursion. Andreas Mikkelsen and Jørn Listerud finished third in the category, although they too encountered difficulties during the event.
The battle for the lead of Rally Portugal in the WRC2 category was dramatic from the very beginning until the finish. As early as Thursday, the Spanish crew of Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuán, driving the Fabia RS Rally2 for the PH.Ph team, moved into the lead. Although the duo lost the lead on Friday, the Škoda crew returned to the top position by the end of the day.
There was also a strong performance from Andreas Mikkelsen/Jørn Listerud of Toksport WRT, who held fifth place after Friday’s stage, trailing the lead by less than 11 seconds — a gap which, during the course of the rally so far, had proved almost negligible. However, on Saturday the Norwegian crew lost time due to a puncture and consequently dropped out of contention for the outright lead battle. “A puncture without us making any mistake,” shrugged the former WRC2 champion at the end of the leg.
Meanwhile, Solans and Sanjuán continued their battle for the lead against the Finnish duo Teemu Suninen and Janni Hussi. At the end of Saturday’s running, the Spanish Škoda crew trailed the lead by just nine-tenths of a second. Everything was therefore set to be decided on Sunday, but on the third of the four special stages the crew experienced an off-track excursion. “We went completely off the road, but fortunately we found a way back. It was crazy, but we had to try,” described Jan Solans.
Unfortunately, the off-road excursion cost the crew more than two minutes, and they then had to complete the final leg with a puncture on the front-right tyre. As a result, the duo dropped to fourth place overall in the WRC2 category, while Mikkelsen and Listerud moved up to third at the finish. Nevertheless, Solans took even this result in their stride: “We can be very satisfied with the course of the weekend. The car worked fantastically. It simply wasn´ur day today, but we can be proud of our performance,” he summarised in the rally.
Fifth place went to another Fabia RS Rally2 crew, Fabrizio Zaldivar and Marcelo Der Ohannesian from Race Seven team. Two further French crews in Škoda cars also secured their places inside the top ten: Eric Camilli/Thibault De La Haye from Eurosol Racing Team Hungary finished seventh, while Mattéo Chatillon/Maxence Cornuau from ARL Sport claimed eighth place.
There was no shortage of remarkable performances from other Škoda crews as well. The best-placed Portuguese crew was the duo of Armindo Araújo/Luís Ramalho in twelfth place overall, while another Portuguese pairing, Paulo Neto/Carlos Magalhães, claimed victory in the WRC Masters Cup category.
Attention was also drawn to Škoda crews that did not have Rally Portugal nominated as one of their points-scoring championship events. Both Roberto Daprà/Luca Guglielmetti and Robert Virves/Jakko demonstrated impressive pace. The Italian crew held fifth place in the Rally2 class for a long period, but after Special Stage 18 they were forced to retire. Following repairs to their car, they returned to the event on Sunday deep down the order. The Estonian crew was also running far down the field, but Virves nevertheless managed (helped in part by the changeable weather) to set the fastest overall time on one special stage, beating all competitors including those in the more powerful Rally1 cars.
