The 2018 Rally de Portugal (formally known as the Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2018) was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 17 and 20 May 2018. It marked the fifty-second running of Rally de Portugal, and was the sixth round of the 2018 FIA World Rally Championship and its support categories, the WRC-2 and WRC-3 championships, and the third round of the Junior WRC championship. The event was based in Matosinhos in Porto and consisted of twenty special stages totalling competitive kilometres. The event was also part of the Portuguese national championship (first 9 stages) and Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica (first 12 stages); their participants did not feature in the overall placings.
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were the defending rally winners. Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul were the rally winners. Their team, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, were the manufacturers' winners. The Škoda Motorsport crew of Pontus Tidemand and Jonas Andersson won the World Rally Championship-2 category in a Škoda Fabia R5, while Swedish crew Denis Rådström and Johan Johansson won the World Rally Championship-3 and Junior World Rally Championship.
Background Championship standings prior to the event Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia entered the round with a ten-point lead in the World Championship for Drivers and Co-drivers. In the World Championship for Manufacturers, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT held a fifteen-point lead over M-Sport Ford WRT.
Entry list The following crews were entered into the rally. The final entry list consisted of fourteen World Rally Cars, seventeen World Rally Championship-2 entries, and fourteen entries in the World Rally Championship-3. All of the World Rally Championship-3 drivers and co-drivers were eligible to score points in the Junior World Rally Championship.
No. Entrant Driver Co-Driver Car Tyre World Rally Car entries 1 M-Sport Ford WRT Sébastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia Ford Fiesta WRC 2 M-Sport Ford WRT Elfyn Evans Daniel Barritt Ford Fiesta WRC 3 M-Sport Ford WRT Teemu Suninen Mikko Markkula Ford Fiesta WRC 4 5 Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Thierry Neuville Nicolas Gilsoul Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 6 Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hayden Paddon Sebastian Marshall Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila Toyota Yaris WRC 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Ott Tänak Martin Järveoja Toyota Yaris WRC 9 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm Toyota Yaris WRC 10 Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT Kris Meeke Paul Nagle Citroën C3 WRC 11 Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT Craig Breen Scott Martin Citroën C3 WRC 12 Mads Østberg Torstein Eriksen Citroën C3 WRC 16 Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Dani Sordo Carlos del Barrio Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 21 Yazeed Racing Yazeed Al-Rajhi Michael Orr Ford Fiesta RS WRC World Rally Championship-2 entries 31 Škoda Motorsport Škoda Fabia R5 32 Ford Fiesta R5 33 Pedro Heller Pedro Heller Pablo Olmos Ford Fiesta R5 34 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Takamoto Katsuta Marko Salminen Ford Fiesta R5 35 Hyundai Motorsport Jari Huttunen Antti Linnaketo Hyundai i20 R5 36 ACI Team Italia Fabio Andolfi Simone Scattolin Škoda Fabia R5 37 Printsport Łukasz Pieniążek Przemysław Mazur Škoda Fabia R5 38 Nil Solans Nil Solans Miquel Ibañez Sotos Ford Fiesta R5 39 BRC Racing Team Pierre-Louis Loubet Vincent Landais Hyundai i20 R5 40 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Hiroki Arai Glenn MacNeall Ford Fiesta R5 41 Kevin Abbring Kevin Abbring Pieter Tsjoen Ford Fiesta R5 42 Stéphane Lefebvre Gabin Moreau Citroën C3 R5 43 Škoda Motorsport Juuso Nordgren Tapio Suominen Škoda Fabia R5 44 Max Vatanen Max Vatanen Christopher Guieu Hyundai i20 R5 45 Castrol Ford Team Türkiye Murat Bostanci Onur Vatansever Ford Fiesta R5 46 Simone Tempestini Simone Tempestini Sergiu Itu Ford Fiesta R5 47 Motorsport Italia Benito Guerra Borja Rozada Škoda Fabia R5 World Rally Championship-3 entries 61 62 Romain Courbon 63 Joakim Sjöberg 64 65 Brian Hoy 66 Jürgen Heigl 67 Kuldar Sikk 68 Manuel Fenoli 69 70 71 Jason Farmer 72 Phil Hall 73 Danilo Fappani 74 Other major entries 81 Team Hyundai Portugal Armindo Araújo Luis Ramalho Hyundai i20 R5 Source:
Notes — Driver and co-driver are eligible to score points in the FIA Junior World Rally Championship.
Report Pre-event
Haydon Paddon and Sebastian Marshall returned to the championship with Hyundai. Paddon and Marshall had previously contested Rally Sweden before handing the car over to Dani Sordo and Carlos del Barrio for the next three events as part of a drive-sharing agreement in the team. As part of the agreement, Paddon and Sordo will contest seven events each, leading Hyundai to enter a fourth i20 Coupe WRC in Rally de Portugal to allow both crews to compete in seven rallies.
Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen returned to the championship, making their second appearance of the season with Citroën.
Thursday Argentina winner Ott Tänak defeated Andreas Mikkelsen, who set fifth fastest time, in front of 30,000 fans in their head-to-head heat and topped his Yaris by 0.4 second. Defending world champion Sébastien Ogier and his Fiesta teammate Teemu Suninen tied in second, while Kris Meeke finished fourth. Last year runner-up Thierry Neuville completed in sixth, while Elfyn Evans was another one tenth of a second behind. Dani Sordo finished eighth in the fourth Hyundai. Returned Mads Østberg was in ninth, while Esapekka Lappi completed the top ten.
Friday It was full of dramas in Friday of the rally. Ott Tänak first retired from the rally due to hitting a rock, which damaged his engine's cooling system. Next was his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala, who hit a rock and broke his front right suspension. Defending world champion Sébastien Ogier was fourth on the road until he fell off the road in his Fiesta. Hayden Paddon was the rally reader after SS6. However, a heavy impact damaged the front left of his Hyundai i20 and blocked the stage. Teammate Andreas Mikkelsen suffered power steering and engine issues and retired from the day.
Back to the front, Thierry Neuville was the rally reader. Elfyn Evans completed the day in the second place, 17.7 seconds off the lead. Dani Sordo, who had to slow down as his soft tyres became worn, was another 6.6 seconds behind. Teemu Suninen finished in fourth after a consistent performance. Esapekka Lappi and Mads Østberg separated by two and a half seconds in fifth and sixth. Tyre troubles forced Kris Meeke to drive the final Porto stages with just a wheel rim on the rear left of his car and he conceded a minute. Teammate Craig Breen dropped from third to eighth after a puncture. WRC-2 category leader Gus Greensmith and Łukasz Pieniążek completed the top ten.
Saturday Kris Meeke started the day in seventh, but he crashed his Citroën C3 on SS12. Fortunately, both Meeke and co-driver Paul Nagle were unhurt. Thierry Neuville ended the day with a 39.8-second advantage over Elfyn Evans. Chances are that the Hyundai star is going to snatch the position of the championship leader from the defending world champion Sébastien Ogier, who ran under WRC-2 rule as well as Andreas Mikkelsen and Jari-Matti Latvala today, after the rally. Teemu Suninen just edged Dani Sordo, who stiffened his Hyundai i20's set-up, by 4.7 seconds in third after the Spaniard received a 10-second penalty from stewards late on Saturday night for dislodging two bales on a Porto street stage roundabout in SS8 on Friday night. Esapekka Lappi completed the day in fifth in a Toyota, another 11.1 seconds behind. Mads Østberg and teammate Craig Breen, who had to clear the road today, completed the day in sixth and seventh place respectively, followed by WRC-2 leader Pontus Tidemand, Łukasz Pieniążek and Stéphane Lefebvre.
Sunday Thierry Neuville took his first Portugal and eighth WRC victory after a four-day battle. Because of championship leader Sébastien Ogier did not manage to score any points, he now leads the championship over the defending world championship by nineteen points. Ford teammates Elfyn Evans and Teemu Suninen, who reach his first podium, finished second and third to help the team narrow the gap to Hyundai to thirteen points. Esapekka Lappi, who took another Power Stage win, overtook Dani Sordo to completed the event in fourth in a Yaris. However, he was given a ten-second penalty for displacing one of the three dividing bales on SS9's third roundabout later on. As a result, he lost his fourth place to the Spaniard. Mads Østberg and teammate Craig Breen finished in sixth and seventh overall, which brought some valuable points to Citroën, while WRC-2 leader Pontus Tidemand, Łukasz Pieniążek and Stéphane Lefebvre completed the leaderboard.
Classification Top ten finishers The following crews finished the rally in each class's top ten. Position Driver Entrant Car Time Points Event Class Class Stage Overall classification 1 153:49:46.6 0.0254 2 223:50:26.6 +40.0181 3 333:50:33.9 +47.3152 4 4163:50:47.5 +1:00.9123 5 593:50:51.3 +1:04.7105 6 6123:53:20.1 +3:33.580 7 7113:55:09.6 +5:23.060 8 8314:03:57.4 +14:10.840 9 9374:06:03.9 +16:17.320 10 10424:06:20.9 +16:34.310 World Rally Championship-2 8 1314:03:57.4 0.0 25 — 9 2374:06:03.9 +2:06.5 18 — 10 3424:06:20.9 +2:23.5 15 — 11 4394:07:07.9 +3:10.5 12 — 12 5404:09:29.0 +5:31.6 10 — 13 6434:09:38.5 +5:41.1 8 — 15 7474:13:01.9 +9:04.5 6 — 18 8324:16:02.0 +12:04.6 4 — 19 9384:17:11.1 +13:13.7 2 — 20 10334:18:43.0 +14:45.6 1 — World Rally Championship-3 21 1614:26:51.2 0.0 25 — 27 2734:41:49.0 +14:57.8 18 — 28 3714:44:18.5 +17:27.3 15 — 32 4704:51:49.9 +24:58.7 12 — 34 5634:54:01.3 +27:10.1 10 — 35 6684:54:34.1 +27:42.9 8 — 37 7725:10:33.9 +43:42.7 6 — 41 8745:16:45.4 +49:54.2 4 — 42 9625:17:01.6 +50:10.4 2 — 43 10665:25:43.4 +58:52.2 1 — Junior World Rally Championship 21 1614:26:51.2 0.0 25 3 27 2734:41:49.0 +14:57.8 18 0 28 3714:44:18.5 +17:27.3 15 0 32 4704:51:49.9 +24:58.7 12 0 34 5634:54:01.3 +27:10.1 10 9 35 6684:54:34.1 +27:42.9 8 1 37 7725:10:33.9 +43:42.7 6 0 41 8745:16:45.4 +49:54.2 4 0 42 9625:17:01.6 +50:10.4 2 0 43 10665:25:43.4 +58:52.2 1 1 Source:
Other notable finishers The following notable crews finished the rally outside top ten.
Position Driver Entrant Car Class Time Points Event Class Stage 16 16 4 4:38:36.9 0 23 11 45 Murat Bostanci Onur Vatansever Castrol Ford Team Türkiye Ford Fiesta R5 4:36:55.0 — 24 24 7 Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC 4:14:31.0 0 25 12 35 Jari Huttunen Antti Linnaketo Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 R5 4:39:17.5 — 26 13 34 Takamoto Katsuta Marko Salminen Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 4:39:22.6 — 29 14 44 Max Vatanen Christopher Guieu Max Vatanen Hyundai i20 R5 4:47:09.1 — 30 15 36 Fabio Andolfi Simone Scattolin ACI Team Italia Škoda Fabia R5 4:48:13.7 — 36 16 46 Simone Tempestini Sergiu Itu Simone Tempestini Ford Fiesta R5 4:56:21.6 — 44 11 69 5:27:19.3 0 11 — Source:
Special stages