The duo Kris Meeke/Stuart Loudon (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) won, this Saturday, the Rallye Casinos do Algarve, the second round of the Portuguese Rally Championship (CPR), in a round in which the young Gonçalo Henriques, in his debut with the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 of the Hyundai Júnior Team FPAK, shone at the highest level and was, with the achievement of third place in the final, the best Portuguese driver.
Adding a delay of 50.4s the day before, due to mechanical problems in the Hyundai i20N Rally2, Dani Sordo, who would be Meeke’s great rival in the fight for victory, made a second stage on the attack and was the fastest in all (6) of the qualifiers.
In the end, a difference of just 13.3s for the British driver in the Toyota, who this Saturday was only concerned with managing the advantage he had to guarantee his second consecutive triumph of the season in the CPR.
After being a great surprise in the two timed sections on Friday, which allowed him to rise to third position, the young Gonçalo Henriques did not give up on the last day of the race.
And the truth is that, even though it was his first rally at the wheel of a Rally2, he continued to “challenge” more experienced opponents, such as Pedro Almeida (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), Armindo Araújo (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) or Ricardo Teodósio (Toyota GR Rally2).
In the two runs through the longest section – Messines (24.1 km) – only Sordo and Meeke did better than him, although the advantage over his compatriots in the fight for a place on the podium was never reassuring…
So much so that at the start of the last stage both Teodósio and Araújo could still dethrone the young Hyundai Junior Team FPAK driver, but the latter saw his performance rewarded with an excellent third place finish, by 0.9s difference, despite the strong attack from the Skoda driver, who still gained a position on the Algarve driver.
Pedro Almeida (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), José Pedro Fontes (Citroen C3 Rally2), Pedro Meireles (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), Rúben Rodrigues (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) and the returning Diogo Salvi (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) completed the “top 10”.
