While Hyundai’s Ott Tänak leads the rally, three Toyota drivers are lined up behind the Estonian. Sébastien Ogier is just seven seconds adrift of the leader, while Takamoto Katsuta and Kalle Rovanperä ended Friday nearly half a minute behind the top spot.
“Kalle drove really well from second on the road. We knew he’d lose a bit of time. In my opinion, it was still a good day,” said Juha Kankkunen, who is currently acting as Toyota’s team principal.
“I’m really happy with the boys’ performance. Second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh – five Toyotas in the top seven. That’s looking pretty good.”
During the final stages of the afternoon, it appeared as though Katsuta might have been easing off intentionally. The Japanese driver had been faster than Rovanperä for most of the day, but the gap shrank to just 1.2 seconds in Katsuta’s favour by day’s end. This sparked speculation that Toyota might have wanted to move Rovanperä ahead of Katsuta in the results to secure a better road position for Saturday.
“There’s nothing like that going on. It’s not worth playing games at this point – anything can still happen. It’s better to just let the boys drive,” Kankkunen dismissed in response to RallyJournal.com’s question.
“The boys know what they’re doing. Kalle and Seb will definitely be pushing hard tomorrow. They’ve got a great chance to challenge Tänak for the win.”
Even though Rovanperä is nearly half a minute off the lead, Kankkunen is not giving up hope.
“With Kalle’s skill set, that gap is absolutely catchable. It’s nothing. We’ll see how it plays out tomorrow. Seb has also been driving really well from a better position. Elfyn clearly suffered from his road position, judging by the stages I watched,” Kankkunen reflected.
Friday’s brutal opening leg of Rally Portugal, which featured ten special stages and nearly 159 competitive kilometres, has drawn criticism – especially with the next leg coming up right away. Though team boss Kankkunen is no stranger to driving late into the night from his own rally days, he acknowledged that today’s drivers face different kinds of challenges.
“The schedule here really hasn’t taken into account how much work the boys still have to do after driving. They’re reviewing video, there’s media, fan duties… and they’re expected to be sharp again at 5 a.m. It’s definitely a long haul,” Kankkunen said with sympathy.
