Forty-seven teams have entered the WRC2 category at the 58th Vodafone Rally of Portugal, in addition to several leading non-registered crews who will be chasing points in the Portuguese Championship.
Frenchman Yohan Rossel has made the perfect start to his WRC2 challenge with victories in Monte-Carlo and Gran Canaria. Those two wins have netted the PH Sport Citroen C3 Rally2 driver 50 points and given him a 15-point cushion over Rally Sweden WRC2 winner Oliver Solberg, who won on the icy and snowy surfaces for a third consecutive year.
Rossel dominated the opening round in the south of France and then led from start-to-finish and won 13 of the 18 special stages in Gran Canaria to finish nearly half a minute in front of Spaniard Alejandro Cachon.
Briton Gus Greensmith began his title challenge at the Kenyan Safari Rally and secured the win with his RaceSeven-prepared Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 for a second year. That success and a fine sixth overall lifted him into third in the title race, two points ahead of Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zaldivar.
Zaldivar collected valuable points in Sweden and finished third in Kenya behind Greensmith and Jan Solans – the Spaniard rolled on the final morning. The Paraguayan also has an early two-point lead over Leo Rossel in the WRC2 Challenger Championship with his Toksport WRT Skoda.
Strength in depth across both the WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger categories is staggering. Kajetan Kajetanowicz began his WRC2 Challenger campaign in Kenya and the Pole led WRC2 for a short period before dropping back to collect eight WRC2 points. He will be one to watch on the Portuguese gravel with his Orlen-backed Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
The list of potential front-runners also includes the defending FIA Junior WRC champion Romet Jurgenson (Ford) and Rally Sweden WRC2 runner-up Roope Korhonen (Toyota), in addition to Lauri Joona (Skoda), Robert Virves (Skoda), Marco Bulacia (Toyota), three-time Rally of Portugal winner Armindo Araujo (Skoda) and Georg Linnamaë (Toyota).
Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet returns to the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team to begin his challenge for honours in a Ford Fiesta Rally2. After a six-month sabbatical from rallying, the former Ford Puma Rally1 driver comfortably won April’s Rallye Capital do Queijo in the Azores in a Citroen.
The list of non-registered drivers is equally as impressive and includes former WRC stars Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke, Nikolay Gryazin and the Portuguese trio of Goncalo Henriques, Ricardo Teodosio and Jose Pedro Fontes.
Sordo claimed seven podium finishes in Portugal during his long career driving for the Citroen and Hyundai factory teams, while Meeke won the event outright for the Citroen Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team in 2016.
Teams complete their reconnaissance of the event’s 24 special stages on Wednesday before finalising their race set-ups on the traditional 5.72km Baltar shakedown stage on Thursday morning.
2025 FIA WRC2 Championship – positions after round 4:
- Yohan Rossel (FRA) 50pts
- Oliver Solberg (SWE) 35pts
- Gus Greensmith (GBR) 25pts
- Fabrizio Zaldivar (PRY) 23pts
- Alejandro Cachon (ESP) 17pts
- Roope Korhonen (FIN) 17pts
- Jan Solans (ESP) 17pts
- Eric Camilli (FRA) 17pts
- Jan Cerny (CZE 16pts
- Robert Dapra (ITA) 16pts, etc
2025 FIA WRC2 Challenger Championship – positions after round 4:
- Fabrizio Zaldivar (PRY) 27pts
- Leo Rossel (FRA) 25pts
- Roope Korhonen (FIN) 25pts
- Jan Solans (ESP) 25pts
- Alejandro Cachón (ESP) 25pts
- Jan Cerny (CZE 25pts
- Robert Dapra (ITA) 25pts
- Nikolay Gryazin (BGR) 17pts
- Mikko Heikkila (FIN) 17pts
- Lauri Joona (FIN) 15pts
- Efren Llarena (ESP) 15pts
- Daniel Chwist (POL) 15pts, etc
