Portuguese rally driver criticises federation over €8,000 fee for better start position

Portuguese rally driver Paulo Neto has publicly criticised the country's motorsport federation, FPAK, over the starting order at the Rally Six Cities North of Portugal. Held on gravel roads in northern Portugal, the event was both the final round of the European Rally Championship (ERC) season and the penultimate round of the Portuguese rally championship. Neto argues that local competitors are placed at an unfair disadvantage.

How the starting order works

Under the rules, ERC competitors go onto the stages first, while Portuguese championship drivers start behind them. As a result, local drivers have to tackle the stages on considerably worse road surfaces. According to Neto, the only way to avoid this is to also enter the ERC round, which costs €8,000.

He told Portuguese media that he disagrees with the federation's approach and asked how FPAK can allow this to happen. Neto said that drivers competing in a single Portuguese championship end up racing in different conditions, and he called on the federation to reconsider its decision.

How the drivers responded

Five leading Portuguese drivers, including domestic championship leader Rúben Rodrigues, as well as Armindo Araújo and Pedro Almeida, paid the fee and entered the ERC round too. That allowed them to start in a better position alongside the leading European championship competitors.

Almeida, Rodrigues and Araújo held the top three places in the Portuguese championship after round 14, separated by 20 seconds. Fourth-placed Pedro Meirelles, who did not enter the ERC and went out after more than 40 cars, lost more than three minutes at that point. Ricardo Teodósio, who is fighting for a top-three place, also chose not to pay and finished five and a half minutes behind. In the previous Portuguese championship round, the top 13 crews were separated by two minutes and 28 seconds.

Neto stressed that drivers who did not enter the ERC have to accept the situation, and said he believes the Portuguese championship does not deserve such treatment.

The winners of the final ERC round on Sunday were Mārtiņš Sesks and Renārs Francis from Liepāja, Latvia, driving a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.