For the first time in 2026, Hyundai believes it has the surface, the package and the driver line-up to land on the WRC podium. The team rolls into Rally Portugal this week with the kind of cautious optimism that has been notably missing from its public messaging across the opening five rounds, all of which were run on asphalt or low-grip mixed surfaces and all of which Toyota dominated.
"The season really starts now in Portugal, because it's a different surface," Adrien Fourmaux said, pointing to pre-event testing where the i20 N Rally1 finally felt like a tool capable of fighting back. "We are much more comfortable and confident with the pace on gravel."
That confidence is built on data, not hope. Hyundai's i20 has been understood for two seasons as a stronger gravel car than asphalt car, and the early-2026 calendar has effectively pushed the team into a corner. Toyota's recent 1-2-3-4 finish at Rally Islas Canarias was the headline embarrassment — Sebastien Ogier on top, Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari completing the lock-out — and the Korean factory cannot afford another weekend like that with the season's centre of gravity moving south.
Sporting director Andrew Wheatley framed the brief plainly. "Our targets in Portugal are more ambitious than the last couple of events," he said, while indicating the team believes it has "three crews with the speed to fight for the podium." That third crew is Dani Sordo, who returns to a Hyundai seat on a part-program basis this weekend in place of Ott Tanak. Sordo's history at Rally Portugal is one of the deepest on the grid: seven podiums, two of them victories, and an instinctive feel for the slick sub-surface that emerges as the gravel road is swept clean by early starters.
Thierry Neuville — the 2024 World Champion — is wearing the team leader's responsibility but knows the political reality. "It is good to be optimistic as that is what helps us move forward," he said, while warning that any belief in a Hyundai resurgence has to be tempered by Toyota's depth. The GR Yaris Rally1 has been the bedrock of the championship for two seasons and has shown no signs of weakness across the early calendar.
The bigger structural change is what Hyundai has been doing behind closed doors. The team will arrive in Portugal with what insiders describe as a "full package" of development upgrades — work spread across suspension geometry, differential calibration and the small aerodynamic and engine-mapping refinements that determine how a Rally1 car behaves over jumps and through fast fourth-gear corners. None of these changes are revolutionary on paper. Together, on the right surface, they could be the difference between Toyota controlling another weekend and Hyundai imposing its own rhythm.
The road position equation also tilts toward the Korean cars. As Manufacturers' championship leaders, Toyota's drivers carry the obligation of opening Friday's stages, sweeping clean lines off the surface for those running deeper in the order. Hyundai have lived this story before — Sordo and Neuville both hold notes that turn this disadvantage into a strategic weapon, and Fourmaux has shown across his Hyundai stint that he is fast enough to capitalise when conditions break in his favour.
The four days that wind through northern Portugal — 23 stages running across roads that have battered every Rally1 generation — will tell the truth. If Hyundai is going to convert "season really starts now" from talking point to title push, the evidence has to be on the timing screens by Friday afternoon. After Canaries, anything other than a podium for the i20 will look like more of the same.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/hyundai-wrc-rally-portugal-2026-fourmaux-neuville-gravel-season-toyota). Visit for full coverage.*
