The Frenchman is the most successful driver in the history of the Portuguese gravel event. Last year, he claimed his sixth victory in Portugal, surpassing Markku Alén in the all-time win rankings.
Ogier will enjoy a reasonably favourable road position for Friday’s ten special stages. Nevertheless, his demeanour ahead of the event was unusually cautious – a rare sight for a driver of his experience and stature.
The reason lies in Ogier’s pre-event test, which was held in wet conditions. This weekend’s rally, however, is expected to be run in the dry.
On Thursday’s shakedown, Ogier was still fine-tuning the setup of his Toyota and trying to get a feel for the new Hankook gravel tyres. Friday will be a gruelling day, with ten stages scheduled from early morning until late evening.
“It will be very tough, very tough. We will be 13 hours in the car, and first of all, it will be very demanding for us, but also due to the fact that we have so little experience with the tyres and that we have no service the whole day,” Ogier said.
“In the remote service, we can adjust a little bit on suspension maybe. But it’s hard to predict much before the rally. Hopefully my experience with feeling tyres will help me to adapt to them quickly.”
Ogier doesn’t mind that dry weather is forecast for the weekend.
“On the rain it was super difficult to drive (with the new Hankook tyres). So I’m really happy to see sunshine this weekend, because it was honestly – I can say the word – scary to drive on the wet,” he admitted.
Ogier is once again contesting a part-time programme with Toyota this season. He’s been in fine form so far: he won the season opener in Monte Carlo and finished second in the Canary Islands.
Naturally, Ogier’s target in Portugal is victory once again. But given the current uncertainties, how confident is he about fighting for the win?
“With having so much question mark, it’s difficult to be confident. But at the end, you need to believe you can do it. That’s always the plan,” Ogier concluded.
