Thierry Neuville set the pace on a damp Vodafone Rally de Portugal shakedown on Thursday, edging Sami Pajari by three-tenths and putting Hyundai Motorsport firmly on the front foot ahead of the World Rally Championship's first proper gravel test of the European season.
Neuville's benchmark of three minutes 51.2 seconds at the Lousada test was followed home by Pajari's 3:51.5 in the Toyota GR Yaris and Adrien Fourmaux's Hyundai third on +0.5. Just half a second further back, the surprise of the shakedown was M-Sport Ford gravel guest Martins Sesks, fourth on +0.6 and dead-level with Toyota championship leader Elfyn Evans. Oliver Solberg rounded out a top six covered by 0.7 seconds.
Sesks, the Latvian gravel specialist who came within touching distance of victory in Saudi Arabia earlier this season, was buoyant after his runs. He said matching Evans's time to the tenth of a second was a "massive confidence booster" heading into the weekend, while warning that the Bolter shakedown stage was tricky and that road conditions would be a moving target with the weather and the ruts.
"Our task is to stay disciplined," Sesks added of his Portugal mission. "Manage the pace wisely and make the most of every kilometre."
Hyundai's morning was completed by an upbeat Adrien Fourmaux, who told the team's media gathering: "We did three passes. We had the best time on the first pass. After the second one, we are pretty happy with the car. We had a great time on the ground, so we continue like this all weekend."
The Frenchman has been one of Hyundai's most reliable performers in 2026 since his switch from M-Sport, and the Portugal shakedown order — two i20 N Rally1s in the top three — backs up the team's pre-event mood that, as it has put it, the season really starts now on gravel.
Behind the front-running cars, Takamoto Katsuta was seventh, Daniel Sordo eighth on the second factory-supported Hyundai, and the M-Sport pair of Jon Armstrong and Josh McErlean ninth and tenth respectively. McErlean is fresh off a career-defining run at Rally Islas Canarias and arrives in Portugal as the most credible Irish rally hope in years. Armstrong reflected that his run was 1.77 seconds off the fastest time, with areas to improve but a good start.
Eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier did set the 11th-fastest time on paper at 3:54.4, but the published order does not tell the whole story. Ogier completed only one proper run for himself before handing his Toyota over for an extended VIP demonstration lap, and on his first run he was inside the top six — quicker than Neuville's third pass, faster than Sesks, faster than Sordo, and only half a second behind Solberg. As DirtFish noted ahead of the weekend, Ogier has converted 15 starts at Rally Portugal into seven wins and 11 podiums, and the Frenchman remains the man Hyundai must beat over the four days of stages to come.
The wider question hanging over the weekend is the weather. Forecasts at the rally base near Porto sit at an 81 percent chance of rain on Thursday evening, 68 percent on Friday, 93 percent across Saturday and 94 percent into Sunday morning. The Portugal gravel is famously punishing when wet, and the running order for Friday — Evans first on the road as championship leader, with Hyundai's lead car deep in seventh — could play directly into Hyundai's hands if the rain hits early.
Takamoto Katsuta, who had a confidence-building shakedown in eighth, summed up the wider Toyota mood. "The changing conditions in Portugal can be quite tricky," the Japanese driver said, "but we're ready to push." With Toyota having locked out the championship top three and Hyundai's update package now bedding in for the European gravel rounds, the title fight is at its tightest of the year. Stage 1 — the Coimbra super special — gets under way Friday afternoon.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/neuville-wrc-rally-portugal-2026-shakedown-hyundai). Visit for full coverage.*