Solberg grabs early WRC Portugal Rally lead

Oliver Solberg made the strongest start to WRC Rally Portugal, the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver ending Thursday’s short opening leg with a 3.4s advantage over Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux.

The 24-year-old Swede took control on the second test, 12.58-mile Sever-Albergaria, where his fastest time moved him to the head of the field in the FIA World Rally Championship’s ’s return to mainland Europe for its first all-gravel round of the season.

After three stages and 23.15 miles of competition, Solberg’s GR Yaris Rally1 led the i20 N Rally1 of Fourmaux by 3.4s, with Sebastien Ogier (Toyota), Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and Elfyn Evans (Toyota) split by just three-tenths of a second in third to fifth.

Fourmaux was quickest out of the blocks on the opening 9.37-mile Agueda-Sever stage, edging WRC points leader Evans by just 0.1s. The latter’s time was noteworthy, given that being first car on the road, courtesy of that points lead, meant sweeping loose gravel for the cars behind. Solberg was only another tenth of a second behind, while Dani Sordo in the third of the Hyundais and Sami Pajari’s GR Yaris completed the early top five.

Fourmaux’s advantage lasted only one stage as Solberg produced the benchmark on Sever-Albergaria, beating Neuville by 1.4sec and taking 3.6s out of Fourmaux to move into the rally lead.

With no overnight service following the evening’s 1.2-mile Figueira da Foz super special, Solberg took no risks on the mixed-surface test and protected his lead. Ogier and Evans shared the fastest time there, but the gaps remained tight at the front.

“I just tried to be clean and take it easy,” Solberg explained. “We have no service [overnight], 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.”

Ogier, who won last time out on the Canary Islands asphalt, ended the day third overall, 7.2s from the lead, after recovering from a difficult opening stage. The seven-time Portugal winner had complained about the balance of his GR Yaris Rally1, but found some improvement as the afternoon progressed.

“It wasn’t the ideal start for us,” admitted nine-time and reigning WRC champ Ogier. “We really struggled in the first stage and we managed to change the car a bit in the second. We were fighting a bit this afternoon. We have to try to do better tomorrow.”

Neuville was fourth, just 0.2s behind Ogier after a more encouraging start for Hyundai Motorsport following its lack of pace in the Canary Islands. The 2024 WRC champ was second fastest on the second stage and remained within 7.4s of the lead despite losing time with a half-spin on the leg-ending super special.

Thierry Neuville (above) holds fourth overall in a rally that looks better for Hyundai than its off-the-pace showing in the Canary Islands.

Evans completed the top five, 7.5s down, after a more than solid performance running point on Portugal’s loose gravel. Pajari was sixth, but admitted he lacked full confidence in the balance of his Toyota, while Sordo held seventh and was encouraged by the feeling in his Hyundai.

Two-time 2026 winner Takamoto Katsuta ended the day eighth in the fifth of the factory GR Yaris fleet, 15.9s from the lead, but building a gap to M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean and Jon Armstrong. Martins Sesks was just 0.1s further back in 11th after a cautious return to Rally1 competition in the third of the M-Sport Pumas.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Jan Solans set the early pace in his Skoda Fabia RS. Factory Lancia duo Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel hold second and fourth, respectively, as they attempt to deliver the WRC returnee a first gravel victory after back-to-back asphalt wins for its Ypsilon HF Rally2. Alejandro Cachon holds third in class in the highest placed of the Rally2-spec GR Yaris contingent.

Friday ups the jeopardy and ups the mileage. A remote service punctuates two passes of Mortagua, Arganil and Lousa, plus a single run through Gois in the afternoon, for a combined 59.79 miles of loose-surface action.

WRC Rally Portugal, positions after Thursday/Leg One, SS3
1 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 28m00.0s
2 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3.4s
3 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +7.2s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +7.4s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +7.5s
6 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +10.7s
7 Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +11.7s
8 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +15.9s
9 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +23.4s
10 Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne (Ford Puma Rally1) +24.8s
11 Martins Sesks/Renars Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +24.9s
12 Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuan (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 leader) +1m01.3s

Catch WRC action from all rounds of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship on RACER Network and the RACER+ App.

Next up, the latest WRC Magazine Show episode, setting the scene for Rally Portugal, premieres Thursday, May 7 at 10.30pm ET on the RACER Network. And tune in on Monday, May 11 at 9.00pm ET for full highlights from Rally Portugal.

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