16-05-2025
Motorsport: Top 10 standing for McErlean and Treacy in Portugal
Irish pair Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1) ended a gruelling Friday schedule of 10 stages of Rally Portugal, round five of the World Rally Championship in ninth position as Estonian Ott Tanak (Hyundai i20 Rally1) headed the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 of Sebastien Ogier by seven seconds, the latter followed by team mates Takamoto Katsuta and Kalle Rovanpera.
There was just 0.2s between Hyundai pair Ott Tanak and Adrien Fourmaux following the morning four stages south of Porto with both posting a pair of stage wins. Tanak was best on the morning opener taking over the lead from Welsh ace and overnight leader Elfyn Evans (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) with fellow Toyota driver Kalle Rovanpera providing the main challenge to Tanak, the margin between them was 2.5s.
As the event progressed, Fourmaux benefitted from his choice of a soft compound Hankook tyre and with the best times on SS4 and SS5, he displaced Rovanpera to slot into second - just 0.2s behind Tanak. Ogier headed the Toyota challenge in third - 7.4s of the lead and a mere 0.7s ahead of Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1).
Championship leader Evans suffered from running first on the road as he swept a clean line for his rivals, he ended the loop in sixth place 21.7s off top spot. Neuville clipped a bank with the rear of his Hyundai on SS2 and was fortunate to escape major damage.
McErlean was the top Ford driver in ninth place 2.5s ahead of Gregoire Munster. Their team mate Martiņs Sesks lost several minutes when he was forced to stop and change the front-left wheel following a puncture on the third corner of the day's opening stage that dropped him to eighty-fourth in classification.
McErlean described his morning's work. "Very difficult yeah. It's changing all the time, sometimes you run wide and then next corner there's good grip.'
On the repeat of three of the morning's stages Tanak maintained the lead as Ogier, Katsuta and Neuville were the respective stage winners. Fourmaux hit trouble on SS8 when he damaged the left front corner of his Hyundai i20 Rally1 that was left marooned on the exit of a corner. Munster edged ahead of McErlean for eighth place, "I just didn't find the rhythm, especially towards the end. Let's keep on learning, still a long day ahead." said McErlean.
Although McErlean regained eighth spot on the day's penultimate stage Munster finished the day 4.1s ahead of his team mate. "Less grip than I expected, it's nice to get through the day, probably the longest in my career." commented McErlean. Evans continued to be hampered by running first on the road, he ended the day in seventh - a minute and 0.9s off the lead.
