In Portugal, Argentina, Mexico, France, Spain, Italy and in all other countries where you can spectate for free, crowd numbers aren’t made up, they’re calculated by police forces or civil protection authorities, as those are trained to do it. For sure they aren’t exact figures, like the ones of a ticket selling (btw, in that case fraud can also exist), but they’re still a pretty fair indication.
At Rally de Portugal case, the crowd enthusiasm has become its main asset. The move to the North was asked by Todt and Mouton, despite some safety risks. Portuguese public has managed to respond in a fantastic way and we can now proudly say that besides having the biggest crowds we also have impeccable spectator’s behavior. Many other countries can hardly say the same.