Less than two weeks after the World Rally Championship had landed in Portugal, its European counterpart was ready for Round 4, the SATA Rallye Acores. Made up of 17 stages based around Ponta Delgada, the tricky gravel roads were ready to claim victims. In the end though, Irishman Craig Breen extended his lead in the Championship with a victory over his title rival Kajetan Kajetanowicz. Breen’s winning margin was just over a minute and local driver Ricardo Moura completed the podium.
The first day consisted of eleven stages, with the majority of them shorter than 10km bar the 28km of Sete Cidades. The battle for the lead was hugely intense throughout the day with Kajetanowicz making the better start in his Ford Fiesta before Breen overhauled him on stage 3. The lead changed hands a couple more times throughout the day, with no more than a couple of seconds between the pair. Breen made one last push to overtake the Pole on the last stage of the day, but only by 2.3 seconds. Behind them, local driver Moura held a relatively lonely third overall after being dropped by the leaders in the afternoon. There were three Portuguese drivers in the top 5; behind Moura were his countrymen Bruno Magalhaes and Jose Pedro Fontes, with Robert Consani’s Citroen completing the top six despite an off on stage 3. The opening day claimed a number of victims like Josh Moffett, who crashed out of 4th overall after the flying finish on stage 4, and Antonin Tlustak, who lost a position in the top 10 after losing a wheel.
With six stages to decide the winner of Rallye Acores, it was unknown whether the victor would be Breen or Kajetanowicz. The answer came on stage 13 where the Pole lost sixteen seconds and then surrendered the fight on the final stage after a poor tyre choice. This meant that Breen took his third win in a row and extended his lead in the Championship to 14 points. Moura took the final podium place in his Ford ahead of his countryman Magalhaes. Consani recovered from his day one problems to overhaul Fontes for fifth place with Sam Moffett, Dominykas Butvilas, Jaroslav Orsak and Charles Martin completing the top 10, with the latter two finishing on exactly the same time after 226km of action. Butvilas also claimed the victory in ERC 2 by over four minutes ahead of David Botka and Brit Chris Ingram held off local driver Diogo Gago for victory in both ERC 3 and the ERC Junior categories.
Final Classification – SATA Rallye Acores 2015
| Pos. | Driver Name | Co-Driver Name | Car | Time/Diff |
| 1 | C. Breen | S. Martin | Peugeot 208 T16 | 2:45:59.6 |
| 2 | K. Kajetanowicz | J. Baran | Ford Fiesta R5 | +1:02.1 |
| 3 | R. Moura | A. Costa | Ford Fiesta R5 | +2:14.3 |
| 4 | B. Magalhaes | H. Magalhaes | Peugeot 208 T16 | +3:04.9 |
| 5 | R. Consani | M. Vilmot | Citroen DS3 R5 | +5:54.2 |
| 6 | J. Fontes | M. Ramalho | Citroen DS3 R5 | +6:38.8 |
| 7 | S. Moffett | K. Atkinson | Ford Fiesta RRC | +8:01.4 |
| 8 | D. Butvilas | K. Heller | Subaru Impreza STi | +9:18.3 |
| 9= | J. Orsak | D. Smeidler | Skoda Fabia S2000 | +10:55.9 |
| 9= | C. Martin | T. Salva | Peugeot 208 T16 | +10:55.9 |
ERC 2 Classification
| Pos. | Driver Name | Co-Driver Name | Car | Time/Diff |
| 1 | D. Butvilas | K. Heller | Subaru Impreza STi | 2:55:17.9 |
| 2 | D. Botka | P. Mihalik | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX | +4:12.2 |
| 3 | V. Stajf | F. Rajnoha | Subaru Impreza STi | +4:57.9 |
| 4 | P. Ranga | J. Czako | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX | +9:24.4 |
ERC 3/ERC Junior Classification
| Pos. | Driver Name | Co-Driver Name | Car | Time/Diff |
| 1 | C. Ingram | G. Moreau | Peugeot 208 VTi R2 | 3:00:37.0 |
| 2 | D. Gago | J. Carvalho | Peugeot 208 VTi R2 | +30.4 |
| 3 | S. Rokland | J. Aldridge | Peugeot 208 VTi R2 | +39.9 |
| 4 | E. Bergkvist | J. Sjoberg | Opel Adam R2 | +2:40.6 |
| 5 | M. Adielsson | C. Back | Peugeot 208 VTi R2 | +5:05.9 |
| 6 | G. Bux | E. Borguet | Peugeot 208 VTi R2 | +7:28.2 |
| 7* | P. Neto | V. Oliveira | Citroen DS3 R3T Max | +12:46.9 |
| 8* | A. Filip | B. Iancu | Renault Clio R3 Maxi | +13:27.5 |
| 9* | M. Carvalho | P. Lopes | Citroen C2 R2 Max | +14:54.2 |
| 10 | E. Blums | R. Vilsons | Ford Fiesta R2 | +19:09.4 |
* = Not eligible for ERC Junior points
Drivers’ Championship after Round 4
| Pos. | Driver Name | Acores Points | Total Points |
| 1 | C. Breen | 39 | 117 |
| 2 | K. Kajetanowicz | 28 | 103 |
| 3 | R. Consani | 15 | 55 |
| 4 | A. Lukyanuk | – | 43 |
| 5 | S. Plangi | – | 28 |
| 6 | D. Butvilas | 4 | 27 |
| 7 | R. Moura | 26 | 26 |
| 8 | J. Tarabus | – | 26 |
| 9 | J. Moffett | – | 24 |
| 10 | S. Moffett | 7 | 24 |
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