Rali Terras d’Aboboreira, Kris Meeke: from ‘crash’ to isolated leadership

Kris Meeke/Stuart Loudon (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) lead the Rali Terras D’Aboboreira, despite a huge rollover on the morning of the race.

Yohan Rossel / Arnaud Dunand (Citroën C3 Rally2) were the fastest in the Amarante Natureza Criativa super special, beating Kris Meeke / Stuart Loudon (Hyundai I20 Rally2) by 0.6s with Pierre-Louis Loubet / Loris Pascaud (Škoda Fabia Rs Rally2) in third at 1.0s. Fourth place for Josh Mcerlean / James Fulton (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) ahead of Nikolay Gryazin / Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) with the best Portuguese being Armindo Araújo / Luís Ramalho (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) in sixth place, followed by José Pedro Fontes / Inês Ponte (Citroën C3 Rally2).

Those who had a strong setback were Ricardo Teodósio / José Teixeira (Hyundai I20 Rally2), who lost 18.9s, and with 11th they fell to 11th place overall.

At the front of the race is Kris Meeke, now 8.3s ahead of Rossel, with Gryazin in third, 13.4s ahead. One Hyundai, two Citroëns, all from Sports & You.

Fourth place for Pierre-Louis Loubet, 0.6s behind Gryazin, followed by Mcerlean at another 0.6s.

Jan Solans / Rodrigo Sanjuan (Toyota Yaris Rally2) are sixth, having lost one position to the Irishman in this super special. Seventh place for Marco Bulacia / Diego Vallejo (Citroën C3 Rally2) who is 18.9s ahead, and from here the differences become greater.

Rúben Rodrigues / António Costa (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) are the best Portuguese, not from CPR, that’s Kris Meeke. The Azoreans are 25.9s ahead and have Armindo Araújo 0.5s behind.

José Pedro Fontes is 7.9s further behind, followed by Ricardo Teodósio who is already 43.1s ahead, and 8.8s behind Fontes. Pedro Meireles / Ricardo Cunha (Hyundai I20 N Rally2) are 12th

Paulo Neto / Nuno Mota Ribeiro (Škoda Fabia R5 Evo) are 14th ahead of Ernesto Cunha / Rui Raimundo (Škoda Fabia R5 Evo), Rui Madeira / Nuno Rodrigues Da Silva (Ford Fiesta MKII Rally2), Lucas Simões / Valter Cardoso (Ford Fiesta R5 Mk II), João Barros / Jorge Henriques (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5), and Pedro Almeida / Mário Castro (Škoda Fabia Evo Rally2) who are 19th.

The top 20 is completed with the leaders of the 2RM and Peugeot trophies, Hugo Lopes / Magda Oliveira (Peugeot 208 Rally4) who won the super special with 4.7s ahead of Gonçalo Henriques / Gonçalo Cunha (Renault Clio Rally4) and there are a lot of people missing 2RM, so it’s best to keep an eye on the times.

Meeke dominated in the afternoon

The duo Kris Meeke/Stuart Loudon (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) entered the Rali Terras D’Aboboreira on the right foot this Friday afternoon – despite the mishap suffered in qualifying, when leaving the road – and took the lead in the third race of the Portuguese Rally Championship (CPR) with a comfortable lead of 20.4 seconds.

In the morning, the British driver from Team Hyundai Portugal overturned after touching a rock and ended up, after two somersaults, falling into an open field, using some vegetation to cushion his fall.

Without serious damage to the car, Meeke was able to continue in the race and, with no time in qualifying, he was left with first place on the road when choosing the starting order. “If it rains, it might not be a bad position, because I’ll get the least degraded floor…”, he commented.

The truth is that the gods were with the CPR leader, as the arrival of rain canceled out his disadvantage and he only had to set a good pace to be the fastest on the 16.93 km of the Baião Vida Natural section.

He won 20.4 over Rúben Rodrigues (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) and 23.9 and 24.8, respectively, over Armindo Araújo (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) and defending champion Ricardo Teodósio (Hyundai i20 N Rallky2).

Meeke’s difference was already more significant (31.8) compared to José Pedro Fontes (Citroen C3 Rally2) and even more so compared to Pedro Meireles (Hyundai i20 N Rally2): just over a minute.

João Barros (VW Polo Rally2) and Pedro Almeida (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) were “victims” of the increased intensity of the rain as it passed, finishing behind Paulo Neto (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), Ernesto Cunha (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) and Lucas Simões (Ford Fiesta R5).

In the CPR 2RM (two-wheel drive), Hugo Lopes (Peugeot 208 Rally4) went on the attack, leaving João Andrade (Peugeot 208 Rally4) at 5.3 seconds and the winner of the 2023 FPAK Júnior Team, Pedro Pereira (Peugeot 208 Rally4), at 8.2, ahead of defending champion Gonçalo Henriques (Peugeot 208 Rally4).

The first day of the Rali Terras D’Aboboreira concluded with the night super-special of Amarante Natureza Criativa (2.00 km), and all the decisions of the race are reserved for Saturday, with the remaining 5 classifications (88.73 km) .

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