Bad crash for Dani Sordo Day 2 of Rally Portugal rained some big time retirements, with Citroen 's Dani Sordo & Qatar M-Sport ...
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| Bad crash for Dani Sordo |
Day 2 of Rally Portugal rained some big time retirements, with Citroen's Dani Sordo & Qatar M-Sport's Thierry Neuville crashing out on the opening stage, SS6 [Santana de Serra 1, 31.2 km] after each of them hitting a tree.
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| Hard luck for Thierry Neuville - Crashed out @ SS6 |
Their retirements sounded boon for Ogier's team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala VW Polo R WRC driver who moved up to 2nd, and so did the Citroen's top driver, Mikko Hirvonen - who moved up to 3rd overall immediately by the end of SS6.
Despite being the day's stages opener, QMWRT 's driver, Mads Ostberg & VW Motorsport 's 3rd car pilot, Andreas Mikkelsen finished 4th & 6th quickest in the opening stage of the day.
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| Andreas Mikkelsen / Mikko Markkula |
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| Hard Pushing - Mads Ostberg |
Ogier, by mid-day was showing signs of fatigue of his battle against the flu, which he battled few days before the rally. If that wasn't a headline, we should learn that Latvala's charging pace & also winning the two opening stages of the day and he surely was inching towards the top spot - but still not enough!
Ogier managed to keep his lead and energy charged to win the rest of the day's stages to make a healthy 34.8 s lead to his team-mate Latvala in second, by the end of SS11.
With four more stages remaining to conclude the rally, overnight rest is vital to crown the winners.
Here is the complete TV broadcast from the Action of Day 1 - Rally de Portugal, 2013
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