Tänak, who tied for second place with veteran French driver Sebastien Ogier (Toyota) in Thursday's short opening stage, became race leader after a stage win in Friday's first stage and did not relinquish the top spot until stage 17, when he lost control of the power steering 10 kilometers before the finish line and, dropping him to third.

Putting Saturday's disappointment behind him, Tänak started Sunday in a decisive way, however, winning four stages in a row and moving up to second place ahead of Finland's Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota). Tänak earned first place in both Sunday's stage and the final points stages, adding ten more points to the 17 points he got for coming second place in the rally's stages.

The result bumps him up to fourth place in the 2025 WRC season drivers' standings, overtaking Hyundai teammate Thierry Neuville.

Thursday

Going into the race weekend, Toyota's Elfyn Evans (Wales) was clear leader in the WRC standings and hungry for his maiden title.

Tänak meanwhile was in fifth place in the drivers' table pre-race, just two points behind Neuville, who is also reigning world champion.

Hyundai were also looking to upend the utter dominance of the Canary Islands rally last month, when Toyota nearly took a clean sweep of the top six places.

Ahead of the current race, Tänak said: "The Portugal rally is a big event in many ways. There are roads I really like, a lot of rally history, and the atmosphere year in and year out has everything you would want from a competition."

"You try to fight for the top places at every rally, but you're only as good as your last result – and in our case, that wasn't our strongest. We have to take it calmly and work our way back to the top," Tänak went on.

Latvian Mārtiņš Sesks (Ford), set the fastest time at Thursday's initial shakedown run in northern Portugal, of 3:52.3, on his fourth run, beating two-time world champion Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) by six-tenths and Neuville by 0.9 seconds.

Tänak posted gravel shakedown times of 3:57.3, 3:55.1, and 3:54.1, making him the fifth fastest.

The first stage proper took place Thursday evening, the short, 2.94-kilometer spectator stage, with Evans fastest this time, ahead of Tänak and veteran driver and eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier (Toyota), the latter two in joint second place.

Friday

Tänak's first full day of rallying on Friday got off to a brilliant start, winning the first two stages and rising to overall top spot, while Adrien Fourmaux won the fourth stage and continued performing well through to the evening, holding onto second place.

However, the Frenchman's strong spell was not to last; on the eighth stage a rock on an inside corner broke the front suspension of his i20, forcing him to retire. This was after another early strong performer, Sesks, had also had to pull out, after less than four kilometers of racing on Friday.

Estonian WRC2 competitor Georg Linnamäe (Toyota) was another of Friday's casualties, hitting a rock on stage five and breaking his suspension, just as Fourmaux had.

While Takamoto Katsuta (Japan, Toyota), promoted to second place after Fourmaux's retirement, saw his pace fade Friday afternoon, Tänak held firm and by the start of day three, Saturday, the Estonian had a seven-second lead over Ogier, followed by Katsuta and then Rovanperä.

Tänak's win on Friday's last stage in fact marked his 400th WRC stage victory.

Saturday

Saturday got off to a good start for Ogier, who put in two consecutive stages, which cut Tänak's overall lead to just two seconds. The Estonian hobbled home over the finish line at the second stage of the day with a damaged rear tire, which he said had ruptured five kilometers out.

He remained in the lead nonetheless going into the midday service break, by which time he had an 11.8-seconds lead over Ogier.

Tänak followed this up with two consecutive stage wins post-break, saying he had found a good rhythm, but on the penultimate stage of the day, about eight to nine kilometers before the end, disaster struck as the Estonian lost his power steering, causing him to drop to third, at the very same Amarante stage which had twice before proved unlucky for him, in 2017 and 2021.

"It's probably just part of the game," Tänak said philosophically, after the short spectator stage that ended the penultimate day. "Very unlucky, but we gave it everything – what else can I say."

Sunday's stages started at 8.43 a.m. and Tänak won these two, meaning he had closed the gap to 26.1 seconds behind Ogier in the lead

Other Estonians competing in the second tier are Romet Jürgenson (Ford Fiesta) and Robert Virves (Škoda Fabia), in addition to Linnamäe, who as noted pulled out, while Joosep Ralf Nõgene is racing in the JWRC category, which uses Ford Fiesta Rally3 cars.

Editor's note: This article was updated to incorporate the final results.

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