After a chaotic and a weird edition of WRC Portugal Mads Ostberg was handed his 1st ever WRC win when Citroen driver and former winner Mikko Hirvonen was a excluded from the rally.
Hirvonen’s Citroen DS3 WRC was found to contravene technical regulations, with the non-conformity of the car’s clutch being cited as the reason for exclusion. There is a secondary problem for the factory Citroen team, centred on the turbine wheel in the #2 DS3’s turbocharger.
The issue with the turbine wheel is also sufficient for exclusion but this penalty has been suspended pending further investigation. The stewards’ decision is due imminently.
Hirvonen finished the rally over 1 minute ahead of Ostberg who also finished over 1 minute ahead of Novikov.
Petter Solberg finished the rally originally in 4th place but with the Hirvonen issue Solberg is now 3rd, after a huge comeback running under the super rally regulations. Solberg’s 3rd place in this conditions is maybe better than a win in other conditions since he became the only driver of the top 4 who collected points alongised Latvala’s 2 points from the power stage.
Nasser Al Attiyah finished impressively fifth but with Mikko’s issues he is now prompted to 4th place collecting 12 valuable championship points.
Rally Portugal 2012 Final Standings:
| Pos | Driver | Car/Engine | Laps | Time/Delay |
| 1 | Mads Østberg | Ford | 22 | 4h 21:16.1 |
| 2 | Evgeny Novikov | Ford | 22 | 1:33.2 |
| 3 | Petter Solberg | Ford | 22 | 1:55.6 |
| 4 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Citroen | 22 | 6:05.8 |
| 5 | Martin Prokop | Ford | 22 | 6:09.2 |
| 6 | Dennis Kuipers | Ford | 22 | 6:47.3 |
| 7 | Sébastien Ogier | Skoda | 22 | 7:09.0 |
| 8 | Thierry Neuville | Citroen | 22 | 8:37.9 |
| 9 | Jari Ketomaa | Ford | 22 | 9:52.8 |
| 10 | Peter van Merksteijn Jr. | Citroen | 22 | 10:11.0 |
| 11 | Daniel Sordo | Mini/BMW | 22 | 12:23.7 |
| 12 | Daniel Oliveira | Ford | 22 | 15:02.3 |
| 13 | Jari-Matti Latvala | Ford | 22 | 17:02.6 |
| 14 | Ott Tänak | Ford | 22 | 17:15.1 |
| 15 | Armindo Araújo | Mini/BMW | 22 | 21:03.9 |
| 16 | Hayden Paddon | Skoda | 22 | 28:25.1 |
| 17 | Maciej Oleksowicz | Ford | 22 | 33:27.4 |
| 18 | Pedro Meireles | Mitsubishi | 22 | 37:15.4 |
| 19 | Yuriy Protasov | Subaru | 22 | 42:10.7 |
| 20 | Andis Neiksans | Subaru | 22 | 48:40.7 |
| 21 | Sander Pärn | Subaru | 22 | 50:48.7 |
| 22 | Miguel Barbosa | Mitsubishi | 22 | 52:34.0 |
| 23 | Fabio Frisiero | Mitsubishi | 22 | 1:09:08.3 |
| 24 | Ivan Cominelli | Renault | 22 | 1:17:47.7 |
| 25 | Sébastien Chardonnet | Citroen | 22 | 1:20:40.0 |
| 26 | Ricardo Triviño | Subaru | 22 | 1:21:10.6 |
| 27 | Ivo Nogueira | Citroen | 22 | 1:30:44.2 |
| 28 | João Fernando Ramos | Mitsubishi | 22 | 1:33:05.7 |
| 29 | Rifat Sungkar | Subaru | 22 | 2:16:11.5 |
| 30 | Paolo Semeraro | Renault | 22 | 2:22:50.4 |
| – | Paulo Neto | Citroen | 22 | Mechanical |
| – | Mikko Hirvonen | Citroen | 22 | Excluded |
| – | Patrik Sandell | Mini/BMW | 21 | Mechanical |
| – | Paulo Freire | Mitsubishi | 19 | Mechanical |
| – | Yazeed Al-Rajhi | Ford | 18 | Mechanical |
| – | Ricardo Moura | Mitsubishi | 16 | Mechanical |
| – | José Antonio Suárez | Ford | 14 | Not classified |
| – | Jan Timo van der Marel | Ford | 14 | Not classified |
| – | Fredrik Ahlin | Ford | 14 | Not classified |
| – | Brendan Reeves | Ford | 14 | Not classified |
| – | João Silva | Ford | 14 | Not classified |
| – | Pontus Tidemand | Ford | 14 | Not classified |
| – | Elfyn Evans | Ford | 14 | Not classified |
| – | Alastair Fisher | Ford | 14 | Not classified |
| – | John MacCrone | Ford | 14 | Not classified |
| – | Christopher Duplessis | Ford | 13 | Mechanical |
| – | Craig Breen | Ford | 6 | Mechanical |
| – | Lorenzo Bertelli | Subaru | 6 | Mechanical |
| – | Sébastien Loeb | Citroen | 3 | Crash |
Leading power stage results:
1. Dani Sordo Prodrive Mini 3m10.4s
2. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 0.3s
3. Ott Tanak M-Sport Ford + 2.1s
4. Jari Ketomaa Autotek Ford + 8.8s
5. Petter Solberg Ford + 10.3s