Crews have the respite of mid-leg service, and a short super special stage at Lousada rounds out the day’s action. More than 90 miles of action is packed into two loops of three special stages. If Friday was tough, Saturday is just as daunting. Maybe because the stage before it was really rough? It’s like that - it was my first technical issue in one year, so no problem.”Ĭhampionship returnee and former WRC2 champ Andreas Mikkelsen brought his Skoda to the overnight halt in fourth overall, despite also carrying out a wheel change. ![]() “My wheel was completely broken,” said Rossel, winner of WRC2 on the previous round in Croatia. The Frenchman faced issues of his own, however, as a technical problem led to him receiving a 40-second time penalty for arriving late to the penultimate stage. Greensmith, winner of the previous gravel round in Mexico, headed third-placed Yohan Rossel’s Citroen C3 by 10.0s at the end of the leg. ![]() We’ve had a clean day - fast as well - but as least no problems.” “So rough with so many rocks and things going on. “It’s been a very good day, but also very difficult,” Solberg admitted. The Swede had moved into the class lead when early pacesetter Adrien Fourmaux pulled over to change a wheel on his Ford Fiesta in the day’s second stage, Gois 1, and his buffer was extended further when closest challenger Teemu Suninen ran into identical trouble in his Hyundai i20 N. Solberg, driving a Skoda Fabia RS, avoided trouble to build a 50.2s advantage over Gus Greensmith’s similar car at the end of the leg. Survival was the name of the game as the rough gravel terrain in the Portuguese hills claimed several front-running contenders. In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Oliver Solberg finds himself leading by over a minute after the opening leg decimated the field. His teammate, Takamoto Katsuta, had bowed out earlier in the day with alternator failure. Tanak recovered to end the day sixth overall, but Elfyn Evans, who came to Portugal as the WRC points leader, retired after crashing his Toyota on the penultimate test. “We don’t have any luck this year, it’s crazy.” “The car started to have fire, one kilometer (0.6 miles) before the end of the stage,” Loubet said. He and co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul were able to continue after extinguishing the flames, later tracing the cause to their Puma’s exhaust. ![]() After winning the day’s opening stage, the Frenchman then looked on the verge of retirement when his car caught fire on the stop line of the morning’s third test, Arganil 1. Just 1.3s blanketed the three drivers at the end of the day, with Loubet edging Lappi in the super special to take fourth overall by a scant 0.4s.įourth was well deserved for Loubet. The Belgian reclaimed the final podium spot in the leg-ending Figueira da Foz super special, leapfrogging Esapekka Lappi in the third of the Hyundais and M-Sport Ford youngster Pierre-Louis Loubet in the process. Sordo’s Hyundai teammate Thierry Neuville finished the day third, 15.2s behind. We were fast, but we also took care of the car and the tires.” “Lots of cleaning (of the road surface by the early-starting cars), but still we did a steady day. “It has been a really good day,” said Rovanpera. The 22-year-old Finn eased ahead of Sordo, who’d inherited the top spot when Ott Tanak’s Ford Puma Rally1 sustained wheel damage, in the fourth of the day’s special stages, Lousa 2, and extended his advantage further when the Spaniard overshot a junction in the penultimate stage. ![]() Rovanpera was plagued by excessive understeer in the opening two stages, but setup adjustments later in the morning transformed his car. While several of his rivals faltered, reigning WRC champ Rovanpera won three of the eight special stages in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 (above) to head Sordo’s Hyundai i20 N Rally1 by 10.7s after more than 75 miles of action during which three different drivers led. Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera mastered a brutal opening leg on WRC Rally Portugal to head Hyundai rival Dani Sordo overnight.Ī thrilling fight in the morning became a matter of survival in the afternoon as heat, dust and punishing rock-strewn roads took a heavy toll in the fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
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