Rally de Portugal

First held in 1967, the seventh running of the race, the 7º TAP Rallye de Portugal was the third event in the inaugural FIA World Rally Championship in 1973.

The rally remained on the WRC calendar for the next 29 years, and after being dropped for 2002–2006, the event returned to Portugal in 2007.

[1] The most successful driver in the history of the rally is Finland's Markku Alén, who has won the event five times (1975, 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1987).

Unfortunately, this led to the death of spectator Manuel Carvalho Da Silva Peixoto, and injured 12 others, but the crowd control was not much improved.

In 2005, the organisers of the Rally of Portugal announced their intentions to rejoin the WRC, this time switching locations to an area around the Algarve.

This is frowned upon by the Portuguese fans, who consider the Algarve stages less exciting, which is also reflected in lower attendance numbers.

The 2007 Rally Portugal was the fifth round of the season and was won by Citroën Total's Sébastien Loeb.

However, he soon suffered a big crash, rolling his Ford Focus WRC 17 times down a steep mountain.