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.[1] 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.[2][3] The event was based in Matosinhos in Porto and consisted of twenty special stages totalling 358.19 km (222.57 mi) competitive kilometres.[4] 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.[5]
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.
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.[10]
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.[12]
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.
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.[15]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.[16]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.[a]
The following notable crews retired from the event.[a] Under Rally2 regulations, they were eligible to re-enter the event starting from the next leg. Crews that re-entered were given an additional time penalty.
