Rally of Portugal 2026, SS6: Fourmaux takes Hyundai to the lead

Almost surprising start to the Rally of Portugal, the sixth round of the championship which, from the very first stages, highlighted the potential of Hyundai. Coming off a last round to forget, the Korean manufacturer closed the first half of Day 2 with Adrien Fourmaux even in the role of provisional leader. Although he only set the best time in the first stage, the Frenchman remained consistently among the top three drivers in the standings this morning, with performances that allowed him to defend the overall lead ahead of the Toyotas of Sami Pajari and Sébastien Ogier, themselves followed by Thierry Neuville. Eight seconds behind Fourmaux, the gap between the latter is however reduced.

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Day 1: Solberg leads, Hyundai doing well

Unlike the last rally in the Canary Islands, entirely dominated by Toyota, Hyundai started the sixth round of the championship in great form: after the best time set by Neuville in Wednesday’s shakedown, it was the French Adrien Fourmaux who brought the i20N to the top of the standings yesterday, faster by a tenth than the world championship leader Evans. However, the situation was overturned at the end of SS2 by Oliver Solberg, who not only set the best time but also took the lead ahead of the two Hyundais of Fourmaux and Neuville, in a stage that was instead not very brilliant for Evans, who slipped down to 6th. The Welshman nevertheless recovered in the last stage of the day with the same best time as Ogier, but it was not enough to surpass Solberg and Fourmaux, with the only step forward made by the reigning world champion, 3rd ahead of Neuville.

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SS4-SS6: Fourmaux takes the lead

Just as happened yesterday in the first scheduled stage, today too Day 2 of the Portuguese rally saw Fourmaux as the protagonist; second behind Pajari, the Frenchman’s performance was useful for the latter to return to the lead ahead of Ogier and Evans, with this trio of drivers taking advantage of a disappointing performance by Solberg to recover a position in the standings over the Swede. Continuous upheavals also occurred in SS5, a stage where Pajari managed to repeat once again ahead of Fourmaux, with the Frenchman remaining at the top of the overall standings. However, the missteps were made by Ogier and Evans, with the respective Toyota representatives dropping to fourth and sixth place after having occupied the podium zone in the previous round. For this reason, Pajari rose to second place ahead of Solberg, in a very competitive morning. Demonstrating Hyundai’s excellent pace, Neuville recorded the best time in the last morning stage, four tenths ahead of Ogier.

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Rally of Portugal 2026, standings after SS6 (Top-10)