The organizers of Rally Portugal announced the route of their event for 2024 which will be held on May 9-12.
More specifically, the recce will last three days from Monday 6 to Wednesday 8 May where the crews will make their final corrections to their pacenotes. On Thursday 9 May, the Shakedown session will take place in Baltar at 08:01 local time while the fans will have the chance to get signed autograph cards from their favorite drivers and to watch the ceremonial start in Coimbra at 16:00 and 17:00 respectively. Afterwards, the organizers have scheduled the superspecial stage "Figueira da Foz" at 19:05 and its distance is less than three kilometers.
The real rally action starts on Friday with four repeated stages and 126,90 Km. "Mortágua" will be the opening stage of the day with 18,15 Km and the organizers decided to host this stage on Friday instead of Saturday. "Lousa" will now be running after "Mortagua" in the morning as the first one was the openening stage on Friday morning and afternoon in 2023. In addition to that, "Góis" has moved one place after compared to the last year's itinerary and will be the penultimate stage of the first loop. "Arganil" will run for the first time in World Rally Championship and will conclude the action in the morning while it will be the longest stage of Friday with 18,72 Km and one part of "Arganil" ran at Rally Portugal of 1997. The organizers of Rally Portugal decided to run the Friday evening loop with a different order in comparison with the morning ("Lousa", "Gois", "Arganil" and "Mortagua").
Saturday contains two passes from four stages and 145,02 competitive kilometers. The crews will start both loops with their pass from "Felgueiras" which holds its position to the itinerary. The action continues with "Montim" which returns to the World Rally Championship since 2023. "Amarante" will host the penultimate stage of both loops and will be the longest stage of the rally with 37,24 Km while it must be mentioned that it will be the ninth consecutive year running in WRC. "Paredes" will be the concluding stage of the morning and the evening and is running to World Rally Championship since 2016, the same years as "Amarante".
The final day of Rally Portugal includes four stages and 62,18 Km. The longest stage of the day is "Cabeceiras de Basto" with 19,91 Km which will run as the first and the third stage on Sunday. The first pass from "Fafe" will be crucial for the crews as they will have the chance to make their final corrections to their pacenotes before their second pass which will host the Powerstage. After the end of the rally, the top three crews on the classification will head to Matosinhos for the podium ceremony and receiving their trophies.
In total, this year's Rally de Portugal contains 22 stages and 337,04 competitive kilometers in distance.
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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