Oliver Solberg has stormed into an early lead at Rally Portugal, setting the pace after Thursday's opening stages as the World Rally Championship's first pure gravel event of the season kicked off in dramatic fashion.
The Toyota driver navigated two rough gravel stages and an asphalt super special to build a 3.4-second advantage over Hyundai's Adrien Fourmaux. Seven-time Rally Portugal winner Sébastien Ogier recovered from a slow start to sit third, just 7.2 seconds off the lead. With the top five covered by a mere 7.5 seconds, the battle is already shaping up to be a thriller.
"I just tried to be clean and take it easy. We have no service until the end of Friday so you don't want to touch anything. It has been an OK start. It's a long way to go and every day is going to be different," said a cautious Solberg.
Hyundai arrived in Portugal with a clear mission: turn around their season. Their i20 N is known to favor gravel over asphalt and snow, and the Korean manufacturer brought an engine upgrade to boost performance even further. The early signs were promising as Fourmaux set the pace in the opening stage, claiming his fourth stage win of the season by just 0.1 seconds over Toyota's Elfyn Evans, who impressed despite opening the road.
Solberg came within 0.2 seconds of stealing that stage win, leading through most of the 15.08km test before settling for second. Hyundai's improved pace was backed up by Dani Sordo, who logged the fourth fastest time, just 1.2 seconds behind his teammate.
Ogier, the reigning world champion, struggled with the balance of his GR Yaris and was the slowest Toyota driver, some five seconds off the pace. Meanwhile, M-Sport-Ford took a strategic gamble, fitting hard compound tires across all three of its entries for Josh McErlean, Jon Armstrong, and Mārtiņš Sesks. The move was designed to save their allocation of 16 soft tires for the expected rain on Saturday and Sunday.
The strategy paid off for McErlean, who edged out Thierry Neuville—despite the Hyundai driver suffering a half spin—to claim the eighth fastest time. With the top five separated by less than eight seconds and weather set to play a role in the days ahead, Rally Portugal is already delivering the drama fans crave.