The former world champion ended the morning of this second stage of the Portuguese race with a time of 2:12.17.1 hours, with an advantage of 13.6 seconds over the Estonian Ott Tänak (Hyundai i20), second place, and 54.4 over the Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20), who is third.

The morning began with an attack by the Finnish Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota Yaris), who started in the lead in this fifth race of the World Championship (WRC), with only a one-second advantage over Ogier.

The Finn gained 5.7 seconds and seemed to be heading for a crushing performance, as had happened in 2023.

However, in the second special of the day, in Montim, an error by the two-time world champion led to the Yaris overturning and the withdrawal of one of the race's main attractions.

Ogier inherited the lead, but would end up giving up first place to Tänak in the long Amarante section, just afterwards, but by only 0.2 seconds.

The 2019 world champion, the year in which he won the Portuguese rally, would end up suffering a slow puncture in the right rear wheel in the last special of the morning section, in Paredes, handing the lead of the rally back to Ogier, complaining that he had lost "about 20 seconds".

The French driver is looking for an unprecedented sixth triumph in the Portuguese race, but is aware that "there is still a long way to go".

"We are giving it our all. The afternoon is going to be very tough", stressed Ogier, who has the biggest advantage that a leader has had in this year's edition, with a 13.6-second lead over Tänak.

The morning was also marked by the overturning of the Skoda Fabia of the Swede Oliver Solberg on the bend following Rovanperä's accident, and the spins by Neuville and the Briton Elfyn Evans (Toyota Yaris) on that same section of Montim 1, and the withdrawal of the Japanese Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota Yaris) with a broken right rear suspension.

This morning, 51 drivers set off from the Service Park, including the Northern Irishman Kris Meeke (Hyundai i20), who on Friday won the Portuguese Rally Championship race.

Meeke is, provisionally, in 15th place.

Armindo Araújo (Skoda Fabia), who is in provisional 20th place, is the best Portuguese driver in the race, followed by Paulo Neto (Skoda Fabia).

This afternoon, the second section of the day will be contested, with five timed sections: Felgueiras (8.81 km), Montim (8.69), Amarante (37.24), Paredes (16.09) and Lousada (3.36).

Read Also: Rali de Portugal: Rovanperä desiste em Montim após despiste (Portuguese version)