Sixty-seven crews grace the final start list for this weekend’s 59th Vodafone Rally of Portugal.
Eleven Rally1 teams – five Toyotas and three Hyundais and Fords – will be joined at the ceremonial start in Coimbra this afternoon by a staggering 40 crews competing in Rally2 machines, 11 Rally3 entrants (eight in WRC3 – seven also registered in Junior WRC) and an additional five teams.
Of the 40 WRC2 entries, all but six are registered for the FIA series with five of the other six – José Pedro Fontes, Ricardo Teodósio, Gonçalo Henriques, Pedro Almeida and Hugo Lopes – focusing on the Portuguese Rally Championship.
Four of the WRC2 entrants are also former Rally1 factory drivers: Gus Greensmith (Toyota), Eric Camilli (Skoda) and Teemu Suninen (Toyota) drove for the M-Sport Ford Rally Team and Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda) had spells with the Volkswagen, Citroën and Hyundai factory teams. Suninen has also driven for the Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team.
Frenchman Yohan Rossel is currently tied with his brother Léo for supremacy in the WRC2 series. Léo is not taking part in Portugal this weekend and that has opened the door for Yohan to extend his advantage in a Lancia Ypsilon HF. Italy’s Roberto Daprà (Skoda) and Roope Korhonen (Toyota) are the closest challengers to the French duo and are both present in Portugal.
Leo Rossel has a 21-point cushion over Daprà in the WRC2 Challenger series but the likes of the Italian, Alejandro Cachon (Toyota), Nikolay Gryazin (Lancia) and Korhonen have the opportunity to snatch the initiative in the Frenchman’s absence.