In a hilarious twist, Dani Sordo, the part-time driver for Hyundai Motorsport, compared his fight against WRC leader Kalle Rovanperä to driving a less powerful R5 car. Sordo’s humorous analogy came after he finished second overall to the Finnish driver at Vodafone Rally de Portugal. Although Sordo secured his first podium of the 2023 season and achieved a hat-trick of stage wins on the gravel track, he couldn’t catch up to Rovanperä, who beat him by almost one minute.
After the rally, Sordo praised Toyota’s defending world champion and humorously likened his efforts to a completely different category, as if he were driving an R5-specification car.
“It felt like I was driving an R5 in a whole different league,” joked the Spaniard. “He did it effortlessly last year. We know he always has that extra something, and he just zooms past! I’m really thrilled with the podium finish, especially because our performance on Saturday was so satisfying,” he continued. “We started off a bit slow in the morning, but in the afternoon, we found our rhythm, and it was an incredible feeling.”
As Sordo gears up for the Rally Italia Sardegna, an event he has previously won twice, he anticipates another challenge, this time with the added presence of fellow part-timer Sébastien Ogier, who will be driving a GR Yaris.
“We always perform well in Sardinia,” he said. “We’ll do our best to achieve a good result. Seb [Ogier] will be there too, so we’ll have two super-fast Kalles! It’s going to be interesting.”
