Neuville wins in Portugal after Ogier slowed by puncture

LISBON (Agencies): Belgian Thierry Neuville gave Hyundai a first win of the season in the Rally of Portugal on Sunday after Toyota’s overnight leader Sebastien Ogier suffered a puncture on the penultimate stage. Neuville finished 16.3 seconds clear of Toyota’s Oliver Solberg with championship leader Elfyn Evans, also in a Toyota, third and a further 12.8 behind. Evans stretched his overall advantage to 12 points over Japanese teammate Takamoto Katsuta, who finished fifth and behind Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, with his 23rd career championship rally ⁠win. “It’s a very special one, especially after what happened in Croatia and the struggles we had. Not just for (co-driver) Martijn (Wydaeghe) and me, but also for the whole team,” said Neuville after the wet final stage. “Always on a good rhythm, nothing was really perfect, but we just got through.” In Croatia last month Neuville hit a concrete block and crashed out on the final stage while leading by more than a minute. Reigning nine times world champion Ogier, who had a 21.9 ⁠second lead at the start of the final day of the Matosinhos-based gravel event, finished sixth on Sunday with the Frenchman also sixth overall. “It should have been (a win). There are things we can control and everything we could control we did pretty ⁠well. Hard luck today,” said Ogier, who had been chasing a record eighth win in the event. Ogier had been leading by 17 seconds when he had the right rear ⁠puncture on the 22nd Vieira do Minho 2 stage, losing a minute and 25 seconds in stopping to change the wheel. Evans now has 123 points ⁠after six rounds to Katsuta’s 111 with Solberg on 92. In the manufacturers’ standings, Toyota have 311 to Hyundai’s tally of 218. The next rally is in Japan on May 28-31.