MOTORSPORT: Citroen driver leads WRC

Toyota's top rally driver has won for the third time in this year's World Rally Championship but Citroen's superstar still leads, while Hyundai remains the top manufacturer.

Estonian Ott Tanak could have gone to the top of the driver standings after his latest, second successive win in a Toyota Yaris in Portugal. However, Tanak deliberately slowed on the final 'power stage' to ensure he does not have the disadvantage of starting first in Italy in a fortnight. He allowed Citroen's Sebastien Ogier to remain ahead on points, ensuring the Frenchman has the unwanted job in his C3 of 'clearing' the gravel roads for his rivals on Italian island Sardinia.

Hyundai's Belgian driver Thierry Neuville finished second in Portugal in his i20 after Northern Irishman Kris Meeke, who had been within 2.5 seconds of Tanak on the last day, crashed his Toyota on the power stage. The Korean manufacturer is still 20 points clear of Toyota in the manufacturer standings despite French nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb and Spaniard Dani Sordo not picking up any points at the weekend after early fuel pressure problems. Loeb did not even finish after hitting a bank on the famous Fafe jump stage on the last day.

Unlike Formula 1, in which Mercedes has almost double the points of Ferrari after six of 21 races (and Red Bull is held back by Daniel Ricciardo's replacement there, Pierre Gasly) and the drivers' title will be decided between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, the WRC is a genuine three-cornered contest for both the individual and team championships.

Ogier, back with Citroen this year after six straight world titles with Volkswagen and M-Sport Ford, has 142 points to Tanak's 140 and Neuville's 132 and they could fight it out all the way to the season finale again – Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour in mid-November. Hyundai has 202 points on the manufacturers' table, reigning champion Toyota 182, Citroen 158 and M-Sport Ford 122.

Instead of Ogier feeling any animosity towards Tanak and Toyota over the power-stage tactic, he was furious with Hyundai for ordering Sordo and Loeb to check in late on stages and run between him and Neuville to give the Belgian a cleaner road. "Mean tactics, really mean," Ogier said. "But luckily Sordo refused [in the end]."

Ogier believed Hyundai had a plan for Sordo to pull over on Sunday's first stage to allow Neuville a clearer run without the hindrance of dust and then restart in front of Meeke, "who would have been in really bad dust".

Eighteen-year-old Finn Kalle Rovanpera gave Skoda's Fabia R5 Evo a winning debut in WRC 2 Pro with his career-best sixth place, behind the M-Sport Ford Fiestas of Finn Teemi Suninen and Welshman Elfyn Evans and ahead of the Toyota Yaris of veteran Finn Jari-Matti Latvala.

Volkswagen, which ended its factory participation in the WRC in 2016 after its four years of domination but is now supporting customers competing in Polos, has a crisis with five of its GTI R5s having caught fire – three of them in Portugal at the weekend.

VW says it is "working night and day" to find the cause of the fires in the rear of the Polos, with speculation a fuel tank breather is source of the problem.

While Toyota has a fight on its hands in the WRC, the Japanese manufacturer is poised for a second straight 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car victory in a fortnight after finally breaking its duck last year. And the company is also dominating America's stock car series.

The TS050 HYBRID Toyotas were the pacesetters at the weekend's Le Mans test day, while Kyle Busch's victory, driving a Camry, in the latest NASCAR Cup round at Pocono, Pennsylvania, was the ninth in 14 races this year for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Toyota has 524 points in the manufacturers' championship there to Ford's 502 after four wins by Roger Penske's Ford Mustangs, three by Brad Keselowski and the other by his reigning champion Joey Logano.

Ford is the reigning champion manufacturer after Toyota's successes in 2016 and '17.

Chevrolet, easily NASCAR's most successful make in NASCAR with 39 titles, including 13 straight from 2003 to 2015, has had only one win this year – by Chase Elliott for Hendrick Motorsports.

Bursch leads the driver standings with 568 points to Logano's 564, Elliott's 511 and Keselowski's 509, while Stewart-Haas Racing's Kevin Harvick – another Ford driver who won 14 races in the past three years (the first four of them in Chevrolets) – is on 500.

Will Power, the Australian who was furious at copping a penalty because of his IndyCar hitting one of his crew during a pit stop in defence of his Indianapolis 500 crown a week ago, incurred another penalty in Detroit at the weekend – and this time it was team owner Roger Penske's fault.

Penske, who calls Power's race strategy, took responsibility for a blunder during the first of the two sprints at Belle Isle Park in Motor City – a round of the IndyCar series at which 'The Captain' is the promoter.

Power had charged from 12th on the grid to third in wet but drying conditions and then pitted for slick tyres.

Power accelerated, under instruction from Penske, as soon as the airjack on his car was lowered, but the right-front wheel nut had not been secured and the tyre soon came off the Chevrolet-powered Dallara.

Power completed the lap on three wheels before pitting again for a new front wing and tyre and wheel assembly. Then he was handed a drive-through penalty for the loose wheel and unsafe pit release and finished 18th.

Penske said he had told Power from his pit stand to go. "I thought the wheel was on, but he had a problem," Penske said. "Will had a second or third-place car ... but there was nothing he could have done."

Power wrote it off as "an unfortunate incident" and finished third in Sunday's second race, won by New Zealander Scott Dixon. Dixon, who had crashed on Saturday, won from Swedish Formula 1 refugee Marcus Ericsson, on the podium for the first time in his seven IndyCar starts.

Penske's American driver Josef Newgarden leads the series after eight of 17 races with 318 points, to compatriot Alexander Rossi's 301, while Penske's winner of this year's Indianapolis 500, Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, is third on 291. Power is sixth with 232 points, while Dixon is fourth on 264 and Japan's Takuma Sato holds 255.

The next race is this Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway.