With the victory of Chris Meekes (Hyundai i20 N Rally2), the 3rd round of the Portuguese Rally Championship ended on Saturday. This was Meeke’s third win in the three rounds of the Portuguese Rally Championship this season.
It rained overnight on Saturday, so the track was wet and muddy. Meeke was the fastest in four of the seven laps in this rally, which allowed him to overtake Pierre-Louis Loubet (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) by 11.1 seconds at the finish, while Joan Rosell (Citroën C3 Rally2) finished in third place. It should be noted that the leading drivers, with the exception of Meeke, started on the tires they will be running on in the WRC of Portugal, while Meeke used different tires with which he could have shown better results.
The fourth place was taken by the winner of the Croatian WRC2 rally, Nikolaj Grjazins, for whom this was his first gravel rally with the “Citroën C3 Rally2”. During the entire rally, Nikolaj worked on car adjustments for the WRC in Portugal.
Ricardo Teodosio’s car after the accident
The champion of the 2023 Portugal Rally Ricardo Teodosio (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) experienced a spectacular accident, who in the sixth stage, occupying the ninth place at that time, experienced an impressive accident, throwing several somersaults at high speed.
Until the final dope in the RC4 class, 16-year-old Turkish Čans Alakočs took seventh place in the competition of 31 crews with Latvian coxswain Ivo Pūkis, but in the final stage the crew lost almost three minutes, which dropped them to tenth place in the overall standings, to the winner of the class, home Hugo Lopez, losing almost five and a half minutes.
Photo: From the personal archive of the crew
As Go4speed told the portal after the finish Ivo Pūkis, then ”In the final dope, which was the third time and was very rough, we broke the suspension and the car lost its brakes. After the finish, one crew had brake oil with which we were also able to finish. This time I had to use my technical knowledge to be able to reach the finish line. It’s a pity that we lost a couple of positions, but we are happy with the finish we achieved!”
After three stages of the Portuguese Rally Championship, Meeke has accumulated 84 points, while the second is the multiple Portuguese Rally Champion Armindo Araujo, who has finished second in all three rallies.
Ricardo Teodosio crash
Rally results:
Tags: Meeke continues perfectly wins victory Portuguese Rally Championship
