Neuville takes WRC title lead with Portugal win

Full WRC results from Rally de Portugal

Thierry Neuville has taken the World Rally Championship title lead off of Sebastien Ogier with victory at Rally de Portugal for Hyundai as M-Sport Ford duo Elfyn Evans and Teemu Suninen both claimed their first podiums of the year.

After Ogier and Ott Tanak both dropped out of the running early on in Portugal, Neuville had a golden opportunity to make a big move in the title race. Neuville carved his way to the top of the classification midway through the first leg before controlling his lead over Evans to clinch his second win of the year.

Neuville now has a 19-point lead over Ogier after also taking second place on the Power Stage behind Esapekka Lappi in the Toyota.

With Evans taking second place in the overall result, M-Sport Ford teammate Suninen produced his best result of the year to win the three-way tussle for third place against Lappi who finished in fourth ahead of Hyundai’s Dani Sordo in fifth.

Mads Ostberg led the Citroen charge on his gravel debut for the French manufacturer in sixth place, over two minutes off of Sordo, having seen teammate Kris Meeke sustain a heavy crash on SS12 which saw the British driver taken to hospital as a precaution.

Citroen’s Craig Breen claimed seventh place as the final premier class points finisher in an event of high attrition which saw WRC2 winner Pontus Tidemand take eighth place overall.