Finale podium powers customer to Portuguese Rally Championship title
A podium helped Team Hyundai Portugal’s Ricardo Teodósio and José Teixeira come out on top of a four-way championship battle at the final round of the Portuguese Rally Championship. The i20 N Rally crew finished third at Rallye Vidreiro – Centro de Portugal Marinha Grande to leapfrog the top two in the standings and claim the crown by seven points.
“I’m extremely happy to have won the title and I must first thank Hyundai and my sponsors for their trust,” said Ricardo. “And right now I can’t forget Craig Breen, to whom I also dedicate the championship win.”
Class of the field
The third place that secured the title was Ricardo and José’s fifth podium 2023 – the most of any crew in the championship. This achievement was crucial to their triumph, as their consistency and the reliability of the i20 N Rally2 shone through across the season.
Over the course of the year, our customer crews won a total of six events. The sequence was started by Craig and James at the opening round, before being continued by Ricardo and José and then Kris Meeke, who won on his debut with the i20 N Rally2 at Rali Terras d’Aboboreira.
The Irishman went on to take three further victories in the series, but a pair of retirements prevented him from being in title contention. However, his margin of victory in the season finale – nearly a minute – was his largest of the season and rounded off a successful year for our customers in the championship.
“Team Hyundai Portugal have had another remarkably successful season,” said Andrea, our Customer Racing Manager. “Winning six of the eight rounds absolutely proves their position as one of the leading teams in the national championship. The result of Rallye Vidreiro was a perfect end of their year, with another dominant win for Kris and the overall title for Ricardo after an excellent podium. As team-mates for most of the season the two drivers have shown both pace and consistency and have taken the all the rewards their efforts deserve.”
