Rúben Rodrigues seized the overall lead at the Rali da Água following a dramatic fourth special stage marked by heavy attrition among the frontrunners. Rodrigues heads into the final stages with a slim advantage over Rafael Rêgo as high temperatures and demanding terrain shape the Portuguese championship showdown.
Drama on the Stages Shakes Up the Frontrunners
The competitive landscape of the rally shifted dramatically during the fourth special stage (PEC4), known as the Rota Termal super special. João Barros and Jorge Henriques powered their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 to a stage victory, edging out Rúben Rodrigues and Rui Raimundo in their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 by 2.7 seconds, while Ricardo Teodósio and José Teixeira secured the third spot in a Citroën C3 Rally2.
The final of the afternoon and the day brought a shake-up to the overall classification, with Rúben Rodrigues ascending to the lead on PEC3 and boasting a 5.3-second advantage over Rafael Rêgo and Nuno Mota Ribeiro after the super special. Ricardo Teodósio sits in third place at 16.1 seconds, and João Barros occupies the fourth position at 28.9 seconds. This day revealed itself to be a true test of endurance, culminating in a veritable “razia” for some of the strong names of the competition.
Yet the day will be remembered just as much for the heavy misfortune that struck several top contenders. José Pedro Fontes and Inês Ponte, aboard the Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale, faced a challenging day with three punctures on PEC3. Despite a respectable fourth place on the super special, they finished the day in the tenth position, nearly a minute and a half off the front, marking a significant setback.
Pedro Almeida and António Costa (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) saw their aspirations seriously compromised on the super special. Upon braking for a roundabout, their car “passed” from the rear, getting stuck inside that roundabout. After some delay and the need to alert for a possible fire risk, the police permitted assistance, and the driver, with help, managed to resume the course and finish the section. Nonetheless, this incident cost him more than two minutes, making him drop from third place overall to the 14th position, 2m12.0s off the lead.
Tactical Battles and the Pursuit of the Leader
This scenario places Rúben Rodrigues in a privileged position in the title fight. With his main adversaries suffering considerable delays, a good result for Rodrigues could mean capturing the championship soon, ahead of schedule. One of the highlights of the day was, without a doubt, Rafael Rêgo. His notable performance, error-free and with consistent pacing, allowed him to finish the day a scant 5.3 seconds from the lead, demonstrating promising potential. Despite all the action and multiple occurrences, it is important to highlight that only three road sections and one super special were concluded, anticipating many more emotions ahead.
Rêgo continued his charge into the Rali da Água/PEC6, piloting his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 to another stage win. By defeating Rúben Rodrigues and Rui Raimundo by a margin of 3.7 seconds, Rêgo resulted in a significant reduction of Rodrigues’s lead to just 1.4 seconds. This performance by Rêgo raises some strategic questions: will the Azorean driver be adopting an excessively cautious posture, or will he perhaps be launching the bait
to the young Toyota driver? A third and more optimistic perspective suggests that Rafael Rêgo is managing to maintain a comfortable and consistent rhythm, which has proven sufficient to challenge the championship leader — a feat that Armindo Araújo and Pedro Almeida failed to materialize.
In the same stage, Ricardo Teodósio and José Teixeira (Citroën C3 Rally2) guaranteed the third position, ahead of José Pedro Fontes and Inês Ponte. The trial’s leader, Ruben Rodrigues, followed these duplexes. In the general classification, important movements were registered. José Pedro Fontes and Pedro Meireles, the latter accompanied by Mário Castro in the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, ascended respectively to the sixth (Meireles) and seventh (Fontes) positions. This rise happened at the expense of Iago Gabeiras and Ian Fernández (Hyundai i20 N Rally2), and Henrique Moniz and Jorge Diniz (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2), who dropped to the eighth and ninth places, respectively.
Fierce Contests in Two-Wheel Drive and Junior Ranks
In the Two-Wheel Drive (2RM) category, João Rodrigues and Bruno Carvalho (Peugeot 208 Rally4) finished the day with a comfortable advantage of 12.1 seconds, even after ceding 5.3 seconds on the super special. Hélder Miranda and Mariana Machado (Peugeot 208 Rally4) occupy second place, with Pedro Silva and Valter Cardoso (Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 HF) closing out the provisional podium, 25.8 seconds off the lead. Anton Korzun and Pavlo Kononov (Peugeot 208 Rally4) are fourth, followed by Nuno Coelho and Ricardo Cunha (Peugeot 208 Rally4) and Rafael Cardeira and Luís Boiça (Peugeot 208 Rally4). Pedro Câmara and João Câmara (Peugeot 208 Rally4) suffered a puncture right at the start, delaying them significantly and finishing the day in the tenth position, 1m17.4s off the front.
In the FPAK Júnior Team, Francisco Fontes (Lancia Ypsilon Rally6) and Guilherme Nunes (Peugeot 208 Rally6) maintained an animated duel from the beginning until the former suffered a puncture and dropped to last position, more than 8 minutes from first place. Mário Matias (Peugeot 208 Rally4), another of the candidates, has Leandro Costa (Peugeot 208 Rally6) close by and already distanced from Ricardo Soares (Peugeot 208 Rally6), while José Coelho Lima (Lancia Ypsilon Rally6) withdrew due to mechanical problems, returning later in “super-rally. This Saturday, the final leg will have six classificatory stages (61.41 km) with much still to be decided, attending to the short time differences between the top-ranked contenders in a jornada anticipated as
hard” due to the forecast of elevated temperatures.
