And here we are, post Christmas and round 3 of the 1995 World Rally Championship is complete. Rally Portugal proved itself a formidable foe, the rough tracks turned into water-slides as the weather deteriorated through the event and the long final leg challenged everyone.
Just 20 of the 46 starters saw the finish line in Portugal, but once again we witnessed an incredibly close finish, with
@Dreadmed taking P1 in the Mitsubishi, just 7 seconds ahead of
@RYAN in the Ford. P3 was taken by
@Hasnain282 in the Toyota, 28 seconds back from the winner.
@Dreadmed and
@RYAN showing their pace for the 2nd rally in a row, proving their championship credentials. Sweden winner
@Speedster502 could only manage 11th place in his Ford.
Despite this, it is still Ford showing the most strength, with 5 Ford Escorts inside the top 10. Mitsubishi took their 2nd victory of the season, and Toyota made the podium for the second round in a row. It was a decent showing for Subaru, with more cars reaching the finish and some decent points, 7th and 8th giving them a needed boost.
Final Classification:
| Rank | DisplayName | Vehicle | Time | DifferenceToFirst |
| 1 | Dreadmed | Mitsubishi Galant VR4 | 1:16:53 | 0:00:00 |
| 2 | RDA-JETS | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:17:00 | 0:00:07 |
| 3 | Hasnain282 | SUBARU Legacy RS | 1:17:21 | 0:00:28 |
| 4 | NathannW94 | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:17:24 | 0:00:31 |
| 5 | JabierFailure | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:18:36 | 0:01:43 |
| 6 | DarkSmaile977 | Mitsubishi Galant VR4 | 1:18:40 | 0:01:47 |
| 7 | Space_Wadet | SUBARU Impreza 1995 | 1:20:49 | 0:03:56 |
| 8 | furzelburzel | SUBARU Impreza 1995 | 1:21:55 | 0:05:02 |
| 9 | RedFox14rus | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:22:14 | 0:05:21 |
| 10 | HajduPeti | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:22:48 | 0:05:55 |
| 11 | Speedster502 | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:22:48 | 0:05:55 |
| 12 | AhoTerunen | Mitsubishi Galant VR4 | 1:25:05 | 0:08:12 |
| 13 | ABarber95 | Mitsubishi Galant VR4 | 1:26:47 | 0:09:54 |
| 14 | WRC Player | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:27:17 | 0:10:24 |
| 15 | magpieracer | SUBARU Impreza 1995 | 1:27:22 | 0:10:29 |
| 16 | mistrelwood | SUBARU Legacy RS | 1:27:52 | 0:10:59 |
| 17 | miljan426 | SUBARU Impreza 1995 | 1:28:45 | 0:11:52 |
| 18 | Voloha1954 | SUBARU Legacy RS | 1:29:44 | 0:12:52 |
| 19 | WinterOx2367652 | Ford Escort RS Cosworth | 1:30:48 | 0:13:56 |
| 20 | Hoganloaf | Lancia Delta HF Integrale | 1:33:46 | 0:16:53 |
@Speedster502 holds on to the top spot in the championship, but the gap is reduced to just 1 point,
@RYAN moves up into P2 and
@Hasnain282 leaps up into P3.
@GOTMAXPOWER drops to P4 whilst
@Dreadmed taking victory sends him from P13 up to P6.
Championship Standings after Round 3:
| DisplayName | Rank | PointsAccumulated |
| Speedster502 | 1 | 113 |
| RDA-JETS | 2 | 112 |
| Hasnain282 | 3 | 102 |
| GOTMAXPOWER | 4 | 101 |
| JabierFailure | 5 | 99 |
| Dreadmed | 6 | 89 |
| HajduPeti | 7 | 81 |
| furzelburzel | 8 | 75 |
| NathannW94 | 9 | 73 |
| RedFox14rus | 10 | 72 |
| Alex_Iv73 | 11 | 69 |
| mistrelwood | 12 | 68 |
| ABarber95 | 13 | 58 |
| vilkku394 | 14 | 58 |
| magpieracer | 15 | 52 |
| Space_Wadet | 16 | 46 |
| RuggishThuggish | 17 | 46 |
| thewrathofwhat | 18 | 43 |
| tomo875 | 19 | 40 |
| Gomaevo | 20 | 39 |
| fourpegs | 21 | 37 |
| j0se-2501 | 22 | 34 |
| kuni355 | 23 | 34 |
| DarkSmaile977 | 24 | 34 |
| frankiestail | 25 | 31 |
| Neomone | 26 | 30 |
| AhoTerunen | 27 | 26 |
| Voloha1954 | 28 | 25 |
| Unholy_Knifer | 29 | 24 |
| WRC Player | 30 | 23 |
| Hoganloaf | 31 | 22 |
| Takashi_IRINATSU | 32 | 21 |
| half_sourly | 33 | 20 |
| miljan426 | 34 | 20 |
| TheAudioPulse | 35 | 19 |
| sinotov2008 | 36 | 19 |
| WinterOx2367652 | 37 | 18 |
| Akkuschreiber | 38 | 17 |
| darrenersmit82 | 39 | 16 |
| tikotaker | 40 | 15 |
| 0002kitty | 41 | 12 |
| lebowski2 | 42 | 11 |
| BelgianWaffle78 | 43 | 10 |
| BrighToon1961 | 44 | 9 |
| yasun2020 | 45 | 9 |
| Dino233 | 46 | 9 |
| Jeuson95 | 47 | 8 |
| micmacbat | 48 | 8 |
| DaniB58 | 49 | 7 |
| WRC Player | 50 | 7 |
| cortecz | 51 | 6 |
| Ujhuuu8iolk | 52 | 5 |
| noro14 | 53 | 5 |
| skolll-T_T | 54 | 4 |
| Hultberg420 | 55 | 3 |
| emiliojes | 56 | 3 |
| SharkyOB | 57 | 1 |
| c07aea92ce6efb26 | 58 | 1 |
| Jam_Fallon | 59 | 0 |
| Grigory18rus | 60 | 0 |
| juniorjohan | 61 | 0 |
| MasaTaroWRC | 62 | 0 |
| P308R | 63 | 0 |
| Houskic | 64 | 0 |
| widdler | 65 | 0 |
| Sw1ftySwift | 66 | 0 |
| TaldirokBad9327 | 67 | 0 |
| anasterion00 | 68 | 0 |
| CheetahsMeow | 69 | 0 |
| FiveHoleCole | 70 | 0 |
| sarukaiseki31 | 71 | 0 |
| DaaaneLA | 72 | 0 |
| KeccaA_RacinG | 73 | 0 |
In the constructors, Ford keep the lead, but Mitsubishi close the gap slight to just 9 points. The gap between Subaru and Toyota stays at 4, but they both look ever more distant to the leaders.
| Rank | Manufacturer | Points |
| 1 | Ford | 108 |
| 2 | Mitsubishi | 99 |
| 3 | Subaru | 50 |
| 4 | Toyota | 46 |
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The real 1995 Rally Portugal saw Subaru return to the forefront after the embarrassing triple retirement in Sweden. Carlos Sainz taking victory from Juha Kankkunen, by just 12 seconds. The Toyotas were strong across the first 2 days, Juha and Didier Auriol leading 1-2, with Juha Kankkunen extending comfortably before day 3, to 22 seconds. But with rain forecast and Pirelli holding the tyre advantage over Michelin in wet conditions, Sainz went into the final days running full of confidence and set about clawing back that 22 second deficit. With 1 stage to go and no spare in the car, Sainz left nothing on the table, with a 9 second advantage still precarious. One final scare would come the way of the Subaru man who took a cut which damaged his brake line and had to complete the stage with just the rear brakes working, despite having that handicap for 7km, he still gained time on Kankkunen and won by 12 seconds. Colin McRae made the podium, 3 minutes back, to get his first points on the board as well.
🥳
