Rallye de Portugal in the World Rally Championship
Portugal
WRC since 1973 (7th edition)
The Rally of Portugal is a rally event held annually in Portugal since 1967 and run by the Automobile Club of Portugal.
It entered the World Championship calendar in 1973, being the sixth edition of the rally and the third round of that year.
It remained on the World Championship calendar uninterruptedly for 29 years, except in 1996 when it was only scored for the 2-litre championship, and in 2002 it was dropped from the calendar. In 2007 it returned to the World Championship, and the following year it dropped out again to enter the IRC calendar, but in 2009 it returned again to the World Championship calendar.
Initially the event was held in the town of Estoril, near Lisbon, and the first stage of the rally was usually run on the tarmac roads of the Sintra mountain range, very close to the Portuguese capital.
One of the most notable stages was the Lagoa Azul stage, which was run on a complicated and slippery road flanked on both sides by a human wall of spectators. The second stage of the rally was held in the centre of the country, in the town of Arganil, east of Coimbra.
One of the stages in the area was known as the "green hell", a complicated section of more than 40 km, muddy, winding, very winding, foggy, and with heavy, fine rain. This special stage has always been one of the judges of the rally and on many occasions great battles took place, such as the one between Walter Röhrl and Markku Alén in 1980, both official Fiat drivers, who arrived with very little difference and where the German Röhrl managed to get more than four minutes between the two passes, achieving victory and setting the course for the world title that he would win that year.
Throughout its history, and especially since its inclusion in the world championship, the rally has changed its route enormously. In its early days, the rally was very long and had a rally route, like the Monte Carlo, and crossed the country from south to north and from north to south, not only passing through the Alentejo and the Algarve (the two southernmost regions of the country). Once in Estoril, the teams were faced with a route of between 1,500 and 2,000 km, of which some 400 km were against the clock.
From 1974 onwards, the rally's rally route was abolished, but the mileage remained at around 2,400 km, although the length of the timed stages was increased, always to over 600 km. In 1987, the total mileage was cut back to 2,000 km and in 1997 the rally had to comply with FIA regulations which obliged all World Cup events to reduce the mileage of the timed stages to a maximum of 400 km and to be run on a single surface only. The organisers focused the race in the north, with Povoa as the epicentre, and eliminated the tarmac sections, including those in Sintra, which had caused so many problems in the past.
In 2005 it was moved to the Algarve area in the south of the country, and in 2007, with its incorporation into the world championship, a super special stage was included in the Algarve Stadium.
The driver with the most rally victories is Finland's Markku Alén, who has won the competition five times. He is followed by Sébastien Ogier and then Hannu Mikkola, Miki Biasion and Armindo Araújo with three victories each.
Since the first edition, only five local drivers have won the event: Carpinteiro Albino (1967), Francisco Romãozinho (1969), Joaquim Moutinho (1986), Rui Madeira (1996) and Armindo Araújo (2003, 2004 and 2006).
Seasons in World Rally Championship
| 1973 |
Jean-Luc
Therier
Tue 13th - Sun 18th Mar
|
| 1974 |
Raffaele
Pinto
Wed 20th - Sat 23rd Mar
|
| 1975 |
Markku
Alen
Fri 18th - Mon 21st Jul
|
| 1976 |
Sandro
Munari
Wed 10th - Sun 14th Mar
|
| 1977 |
Markku
Alen
Tue 1st - Sun 6th Mar
|
| 1978 |
Markku
Alen
Wed 19th - Sun 23rd Apr
|
| 1979 |
Hannu
Mikkola
Tue 6th - Sun 11th Mar
|
| 1980 |
Walter
Rohrl
Tue 4th - Sun 9th Mar
|
| 1981 |
Markku
Alen
Wed 4th - Sat 7th Mar
|
| 1982 |
Michele
Mouton
Wed 3rd - Sat 6th Mar
|
| 1983 |
Hannu
Mikkola
Wed 2nd - Sat 5th Mar
|
| 1984 |
Hannu
Mikkola
Wed 7th - Sat 10th Mar
|
| 1985 |
Timo
Salonen
Wed 6th - Sat 9th Mar
|
| 1986 |
Joaquim
Moutinho
Wed 5th - Sat 8th Mar
|
| 1987 |
Markku
Alen
Wed 11th - Sat 14th Mar
|
| 1988 |
Massimo
Biasion
Tue 1st - Sat 5th Mar
|
| 1989 |
Massimo
Biasion
Tue 28th Feb - Sat 4th Mar
|
| 1990 |
Massimo
Biasion
Tue 6th - Sat 10th Mar
|
| 1991 |
Carlos
Sainz
Tue 5th - Sat 9th Mar
|
| 1992 |
Juha
Kankkunen
Tue 3rd - Sat 7th Mar
|
| 1993 |
François
Delecour
Wed 3rd - Sat 6th Mar
|
| 1994 |
Juha
Kankkunen
Tue 1st - Fri 4th Mar
|
| 1995 |
Carlos
Sainz
Wed 8th - Fri 10th Mar
|
| ... 1 year discontinued ... | |
| 1997 |
Tommi
Makinen
Sat 22nd - Wed 26th Mar
|
| 1998 |
Colin
McRae
Sun 22nd - Wed 25th Mar
|
| 1999 |
Colin
McRae
Sun 21st - Wed 24th Mar
|
| 2000 |
Richard
Burns
Thu 16th - Sun 19th Mar
|
| 2001 |
Tommi
Makinen
Thu 8th - Sun 11th Mar
|
| ... 5 years discontinued ... | |
| 2007 |
Sebastien
Loeb
Fri 30th Mar - Sun 1st Apr
|
| ... 1 year discontinued ... | |
| 2009 |
Sebastien
Loeb
Thu 2nd - Sun 5th Apr
|
| 2010 |
Sebastien
Ogier
Wed 26th - Sun 30th May
|
| 2011 |
Sebastien
Ogier
Thu 24th - Sun 27th Mar
|
| 2012 |
Mads
Østberg
Thu 29th Mar - Sun 1st Apr
|
| 2013 |
Sebastien
Ogier
Fri 12th - Sun 14th Apr
|
| 2014 |
Sebastien
Ogier
Thu 3rd - Sun 6th Apr
|
| 2015 |
Jari-Matti
Latvala
Thu 21st - Sun 24th May
|
| 2016 |
Kris
Meeke
Thu 19th - Sun 22nd May
|
| 2017 |
Sebastien
Ogier
Thu 18th - Sun 21st May
|
| 2018 |
Thierry
Neuville
Thu 17th - Sun 20th May
|
| 2019 |
Ott
Tanak
Fri 31st May - Sun 2nd Jun
|
| 2020 | Cancelled Coronavirus pandemia. |
| 2021 |
Elfyn
Evans
Thu 20th - Sun 23rd May
|
| 2022 |
Kalle
Rovanperä
Thu 19th - Sun 22nd May
|
| 2023 |
Kalle
Rovanpera
Thu 11th - Sun 14th May
|
| 2024 |
Sébastien
Ogier
Thu 09th - Sun 12th May
|
| 2025 | Thu 15th - Sun 18th May |
