On the qualifying stage for the 4th round of the WRC, Rally Portugal, Citroen Total Abudhabi driver Dani Sordo emerged fastest. Perhaps the...
On the qualifying stage for the 4th round of the WRC, Rally Portugal, Citroen Total Abudhabi driver Dani Sordo emerged fastest. Perhaps the Fafe Rally Sprint win gave him that extra boost of confidence, which he displayed today. Whatever the reason, he earned his best start position behind all the WRC drivers, starting the opening day in 13th.
Championship leader and VW Motorsport's no.1 driver, Sebastien Ogier was second fastest and decided to start in 12th, while his team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala was third quickest and will be starting ahead of the duo.Returning back to WRC, Dennis Kuipers will be the first to open the stage [SS1 - Mu 1, 20.32 km in length] tomorrow morning at 08:58.
In WRC2, Robert Kubica enters his first gravel rally and that too in this WRC event. WRC3 is again dominated by the Citroen cars and drivers, setting the morale high at Citroen Racing HQ.This rally is also the opening round of Junior-WRC championship, and the younger lot are all set to strike with their best skills.
First day of Vodafone Rally de Portugal head-started with Dennis Kuipers opening the competition.
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| Mikko Hirvonen tackling a corner |
Volkswagen Motorsport's star driver, Sebastien Ogier went fastest through SS1 [Mu 1, 20.32 km], quickly followed by Qatar M-Sport WRT driver, Mads Ostberg. Citroen Total Abudhabi WRT driver Mikko Hirvonen finished in 3rd, while VW Polo R WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala finished 4th quickest.
Things changed quickly in SS2 [Ourique 1, 18.32 km], when Mads Ostberg finished much quicker and moved to top position, while Ogier slipped to 2nd overall. The quickest Qualifier Dani Sordo finished 2nd fastest and moved to 3rd overall, when Mikko & Latvala dropped one position each on the leaderboard.
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| A disappointed Mads / Jonas, SS3.. |
In SS3 [Mu 2, 20.32 km], the excitement and pressure started building up. Mads tried to push his own limits, went off the road and landed on his car's roof on the edge of an access road, lucky! With Mads out for the day, Ogier comfortably finished the stage. Answering to Colin Clark [of iRally] question on whereabouts of Mads, Ogier said, "Ah, he went off...he was so fast, on some section it was not possible to follow him.." And it was when Dani Sordo found his pace and went fastest to claim his first stage victory, elevating himself to 2nd overall. Retirement of the top player, yielded as a boon for the down-order player, and VW Polo R WRC debutant Andreas Mikkelsen climbed to overall fifth.
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| Mikkelsen & Markkula working on their car... |
With one stage victory, boost Dani Sordo went on to win SS4 [Ourique 2, 18.32 km], and closing the gap Ogier to just 2.4s. Just the SS5 [SSS Lisboa, 3.27 km] left, the top 5 were just under half-a-minute away from each other. Mikkelsen had to endure his share of misfortune, as his car had a power-steering failure dropping below point scoring place by over 2mins. Although he was able to fix the issue before the 200 km long transport to Lisbon, in time.
Leader-board at the end of Day 1, at Vodafone Rally de Portugal - 2013:
Top 5 result :
1 | Sebastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia | 49:33.0Volkswagen Polo R WRC
2 | Daniel Sordo / Carlos del Barrio | 49:37.4 | +04.4Citroen DS3 WRC
3 | Jari Matti-Latvala / Miika Anttila | 49:44.4 | +11.4Volkswagen Polo R WRC
4 | Mikko Hirvonen / Jarmo Lehtinen | 49:49.2 | +16.2Citroen DS3 WRC
5 | Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul | 50:03.7 | +30.7Ford Fiesta RS WRC
Action starts at 10:09 tomorrow at SS6 [Santana da Serra 1, 31.12km]. See You there!
Day 2
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| Bad crash for Dani Sordo |
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.
Day 3
Sebastien Ogier displays his dominance over the rest of the competition, of what potential he's got! It might not have been the same if Mads Ostberg & Dani Sordo had not crashed, but he survived on top to prove his talent when his peers succumbed.
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| Mikko Hirvonen finishing the rally in 2nd position |
Things were different for his team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala, when his car in the first two stages were nearly a disaster and who lost more than 4 minutes and slipping to 3rd overall when his car lost the rear-wheel drive rendering it into a FWD only mode. However in the mid-day service it was fixed and was fast enough to secure his, now 3rd overall and to finish their first podium in the new team with the extra bonus point from 3rd quickest time in Power Stage. Ogier too had issues with the clutch, but endured the machine to the mid-day service to have it too fixed. He won the only important stage, the Power Stage to take those extra 3 bonus points.
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| Dennis Kuipers back in action |
Mads Ostberg showed his talents by winning the first 3 stages of the day, and second fastest in the Power Stage to add 2 points to his championship score, and two more for finishing the rally in 8th overall. Despite of starting early in 3rd position, while the top players enjoyed a cleaner and later grid positions.
Citroen driver Mikko Hirvonen finished the rally in 2nd overall and was the least discussed competitor. Maybe his consistent is just too good to be fiddled with, or he is slowing loosing his pace. Hope it is not the latter.
Here is the complete TV broadcast from the Action @ Rally de Portugal, 2013
So that's it for this weekend action at Rally Portugal, see you soon at Philips LED Rally Argentina. Just for a reminder, Sebastien Loeb will be back in action here!
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