The first day of Vodafone Rally De Portugal 2025 has come to an end. Elfyn Evans narrowly leads after the days lone stage.
Shakedown
Martins Sesks took top honours on the shakedown stage, with a time 0.6 seconds faster than Kalle Rovanperä. Thierry Neuville was third fastest on the shakedown stage, 0.3 seconds slower than Rovanperä. Championship leader Elfyn Evans was sixth fastest, two seconds slower than the rookie Sesks. The slowest Rally1 driver was newcomer Diogo Salvi who was 17th fastest on the shakedown stage.
SS1
Elfyn Evans kicked off the weekend with a stage win on the opening stage of the weekend. Evans takes a 0.2-second lead over Sebastien Ogier and Ott Tänak into the first full day of action tomorrow. It is worth noting that this was a SuperSpecial stage, hence why the gaps were so low between drivers.
Quotes
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“It’s very nice to be back in Portugal. I have some great memories from this rally myself and it’s been a good one for the team, and the people here have so much passion for rallying. Coming back onto gravel, our preparation was a bit mixed with a lot of rain during our pre-event tests. Now it seems like it will be dry for the rally, but our drivers appeared to be really satisfied in shakedown this morning without needing to make too many changes to the car. It’s good to get cleanly through tonight’s first stage because tomorrow is going to be a long and important day.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s nice to start the rally with a fastest time but we’ve got a long and tough weekend ahead of us. Tomorrow in particular is a long day with limited opportunities to change the car, so it was important to work through a few things in shakedown this morning and get in the best window we can. First on the road will not be the ideal place to start if the stages are dry, but it’s a position that comes with the good results we’ve had recently and we just have to focus on doing the best job we can.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“The feeling is always good starting this event with the great atmosphere and some really good stages, and it’s nice to start with a stage for the fans like this one. The feeling was quite OK in shakedown and we were working to try and find something to make it even better. Friday here is always tough and this year it’s an even longer day than usual, so it can be a challenging one, especially running second on the road, but we will try our best to push.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s always a pleasure for me to be here in Portugal and starting this rally; the support is amazing every year. We had a clean start in this first stage which was the most important thing ahead of tomorrow. Shakedown was busy as it was my first kilometres in dry conditions with the new gravel tyres for this year, so we were working hard to find the best setup for the rally. Tomorrow will be a long and demanding day for everybody and hopefully we’re ready.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“I’m very excited to be starting this rally. Every year here in Portugal there are so many fans and the atmosphere is amazing, and this first stage was fun. Shakedown was tricky because we were saving tyres and not on the best ones for the slippery conditions, but hopefully the feeling is good tomorrow, because it’s going to be a long day and a big challenge. I will try to do my best to get a good result.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“I was glad to get through this first stage cleanly because I had some trouble in there last year. It’s going to be a long and tough rally but I’m looking forward to it. The feeling was quite OK in shakedown, even if it was not exactly like the real stages and probably a bit more slippery. Tomorrow is going to be important to have a good position for the following days so I hope to avoid any issues while still being fast.”