Information
Date 17-18 April 2026
Event Rali Terras d’Aboboreira – Portuguese Rally Championship round 1
Surface Gravel
Results (RC2 class)
1 Takumi Matsushita/Pekka Kelander (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) 1h24m13.8s
2 Rúben Rodrigues/Rui Raimundo (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +8.2s
3 Armindo Araújo/Luís Ramalho (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +13.8s
4 Pedro Almeida/António Costa (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +15.9s
5 José Pedro Fontes/Inês Ponte (Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale) +40.1s
6 Pedro Meireles/Mário Castro (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +42.1s
11 Jaspar Vaher/Rait Jansen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +2m12.3s
16 Shotaro Goto/Jussi Lindberg (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +5m28.3s
Results (RC3 class)
1 Jarkko Nikara/Tomiya Maekawa (Renault Clio Rally3) 1h27m48.6s
2 Kanta Yanaguida/Ville Mannisenmäki (Renault Clio Rally3) +13.7s
3 Rio Ogata/Mikael Korhonen (Renault Clio Rally3) +31m21.1s
Quotes
Mikko Hirvonen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program chief instructor):
“This rally brought new challenges for all of our guys. It was either their first time competing on this style of gravel roads – similar to those on Rally de Portugal – or first time doing so in these cars. Takumi had a great rally. He has clearly made another step forward with this car, and set some great stage times and was able to beat all the experienced local drivers on merit. He needed to fight for it until the last stage, and he kept his head to take a well-deserved victory. Jaspar really showed his performance, winning six of the eight stages, so it’s unfortunate that he couldn’t get the result that his driving would have deserved, due to a three-minute penalty for not following the road book and missing a tyre-marking zone. Of course, a result is always nice to have, but it’s performance that we’re really looking for in a one-off rally like this, and his was very good. Shotaro meanwhile showed some glimpses of good pace but couldn’t perform consistently. In many stages something surprised him and he lost confidence. At least he could drive all the kilometres, but there is still work to do on how to manage this car on these kinds of stages. Our Rally3 crews didn’t face any competition this time, but it was still great experience for Rio, Kanta and Tomiya in their first gravel rally with us outside of Finland. They found it wasn’t easy to make the pacenotes, but managed well in the rally. Kanta was able to challenge and stay close to Jarkko’s pace throughout with a good, solid drive. Rio unfortunately faced technical issues from the beginning with an engine misfire, and this made it difficult for him to focus fully on his driving. For Jarkko and Tomiya this was important practice before they do the WRC round in Portugal. They were able to work together well and add some new words to their pacenotes, while also managing some issues to make it to the finish and take victory.”
Shotaro Goto
“This was my first gravel rally with the Rally2 car and, compared to last year in Portugal when I was not able to start the rally and gain that experience of the conditions, I’m happy this time that I was able to complete all the stages and try many things throughout the event. I made many mistakes and the result is not good, but for example, the pace on Saturday morning was better. I’m trying to remove the bad habits in my driving, so I’m taking one step back to be calmer in the car, and through the pre-event testing and the rally I could feel that this is starting to work. We have another gravel rally in two weeks in Spain, so I want to improve there.”
Takumi Matsushita
“This has been a really good rally for us. I was able to find a good rhythm already at the start of SS1. Unfortunately, we caught the car in front and had to drive slowly in the dust, but thankfully we were able to get some time back from the organisers later on. I was able to find the good rhythm again in SS2 and the time was also OK, and from then on, I just tried to continue with this good and steady rhythm. In the end it was a great result and I’m really happy to win this rally, especially considering that there were so many competitors in our class. Thank you to the team and everyone for their support.”
Jaspar Vaher
“Of course, I’m really disappointed about the end result. I think with the performance that we showed, we deserved a lot more. Performance-wise this rally was really good. Everything clicked right away from the qualifying stage on Friday morning and we were able to keep the pace up. On Saturday, starting first on the road wasn’t so easy for me, especially stages 6 and 7 because those were being driven for the first time, but still the times were good. Then on the last stage, I tried to push a bit more. We still have some room to improve, but for our first outing in a Rally2 car on gravel, it was really good. It’s a pity we made this mistake on the road section, but we just need to learn from it and move forwards, because we have a lot of positives to take.”
Rio Ogata
“This was my first ever gravel event with a Rally3 car. Unfortunately, I made a small driving error after the small engine issue occurred in SS1 and I damaged the suspension. The engine issue was still there on Saturday morning, but I tried to use this as good experience, because I need to learn how to manage these kinds of things when they happen during a rally. I really appreciate my mechanics for fixing the car after the damage and trying to find the cause of the issue, and I hope we can have a better rally next time.”
Kanta Yanaguida
“This was my first time competing in Portugal and compared to Finland, the conditions were much more rough and rutted. It’s a completely different type of gravel, and it was a really challenging rally. I had some punctures and a few moments in the places where the conditions were tricky, but it was also good experience and I had good pace on some stages. I was able to gain confidence, so overall I feel very positive. I learned lots of new things from this rally and I’m grateful to the team and instructors and our supporters for this valuable experience.”
Tomiya Maekawa
“This rally was quite rough compared to what we had expected. We had quite a few problems, particularly after SS7 when we found damage to the brake hose which was leaking fluid. We had to do quite a bit of work to fix it on the road section, so we arrived one minute late, but thankfully we managed to come through the final stage and secure the class win. I felt relieved to finish the rally with such a good result. It was my first time on rougher gravel stages and we gained a lot of experience and knowledge, so it was good preparation for the WRC round in Portugal.”
