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WRC Vodafone Rally de Portugal
One of the oldest, best supported and most popular rounds of the WRC. Fast and technical gravel roads inland from Porto in the north and centre of the country are soft and sandy initially, but can become rocky and rutted for the second pass. Plenty of tricky corners hidden by crests while temperatures can soar in Portugal’s early summer.
| Date | Postponed! |
| Categories | WRC / WRC 2 / WRC 3 |
| Servicepark | Matosinhos |
| Stages | 22 (331.10 km) |
| Total Distance | 1581.56 km |
| Website | https://www.rallydeportugal.pt/ |
Service park
- Based at the Exponor exhibition centre in Matosinhos. Plenty of room outdoors for the manufacturer teams, with smaller set-ups accommodated inside.
Stages
- Thursday night’s ceremonial start in Coimbra is followed by three tightly clustered stages on famous roads around Arganil on Friday. Double passes of Lousã, Góis and Arganil are separated by a tyre fitting zone in Arganil itself.
- The leg ends with a return of Mortágua after a 19-year absence and a spectacular side-by-side super special at Lousada rallycross circuit.
- Saturday journeys to the Cabreira Mountains, north-east of Matosinhos. Double runs through Vieira do Minho, Cabeceiras de Basto and Amarante, the longest test of the weekend, are split by service.
- A 1.95km street test in the heart of Porto attracts huge crowds and closes the leg after more than 150km of flat-out action.
- The final day features six stages, beginning with Felguieras and Montim. But the spotlight is on Fafe and its enormous crowds. All three are driven twice.
Iconic Stage
- Fafe – a fabled test that first graced Portugal’s WRC encounter in the championship’s first season in 1973. It is only 11.18km long, but offers fantastic viewing and a crackling atmosphere. It is all about the final 2km where tens of thousands of fans flock to two famous sections. They stand high on the hillside at Confurco to view the cars heading downhill into a square left corner, before a small section of asphalt leads into a hairpin back onto gravel. Then just before the finish is the stomach-churning Pedra Sentada jump. One of the WRC’s iconic locations and nowhere better to be on the final day!