Ott Tänak has taken a clean sweep of stage wins in Rally de Portugal’s Saturday morning loop.
Tänak extended his overnight lead to 19.2 seconds at the end of the loop over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans. “The first loop has been quite okay. I tried to be very, very smooth on this one and so far the feeling is okay.” said Tänak at the end of SS11.
Evans was down on Sordo’s pace at the beginning of the 37.92 kilmetre long Amarante stage, but the Welshman managed to complete the stage 1.5 seconds ahead of the Spaniard. 6.1 seconds separates Evans and Sordo in the overall standings after SS11.
Takamoto Katsuta and Sébastien Ogier are in a close battle for P4 overall. The seven-time World Champion overtook Katsuta in the opening stage of the day, but dropped behind his Toyota colleague in SS10 thanks to a spin. Ogier brought the difference back to just 0.5 seconds at the end of the loop.
P6 (Rovanperä), P7 (Greensmith) and P8 (Fourmaux) remain unchanged compared to the start of the day. Esapekka Lappi extended his WRC2 lead to 14.0 seconds over fellow Finn Teemu Suninen.
WRC Rally Portugal 2021 – Overall classfication after SS11 (Saturday mid-day)
| # | Drivers | Car | Time / Diff. to 1st |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Tänak / Järveoja | Hyundai i20 Coupé WRC | 2:13:02.3 |
| 2. | Evans / Martin | Toyota Yaris WRC | +19.2 |
| 3. | Sordo / Rozada | Hyundai i20 Coupé WRC | +25.3 |
| 4. | Katsuta / Barritt | Toyota Yaris WRC | +1:04.4 |
| 5. | Ogier / Ingrassia | Toyota Yaris WRC | +1:04.9 |
| 6. | Rovanperä / Halttunen | Toyota Yaris WRC | +1:44.8 |
| 7. | Greensmith / Patterson | Ford Fiesta WRC | +2:03.4 |
| 8. | Fourmaux / Jamoul | Ford Fiesta WRC | +3:30.5 |
| 9. | Lappi / Ferm | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | +6:19.1 |
| 10. | Suninen / Markkula | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | +6:33.1 |
Photo: Red Bull Content Pool