Rally Portugal / Rally review
The rally
Oh, we almost forgot but there was also a rally
in Portugal. As we said the recce was quite wet.
But on Shakedown day things were back to normal. The sun was shining in a cloudless sky. The
stage was not completely dry yet but it wasn’t
flooded. Latvala outperformed his teammate Ogier but it was Henning Solberg who came closest. That being a surprise, the other drivers in
the top five were not: Ogier, Sordo and Hirvonen.
The next day it was the usual long trip to Lisbon
where huge crowds awaited the teams for meet
and greet sessions and of course for the first
special stage in front of the majestic Jerónimos
Monastery in the middle of the capital. The WRC
seems to have a thing with UNESCO World Her-
itage Sites. As in Mexico there was a stage in
Juanjuato, a Unesco site as well. On Jari Matti
Latvala’s birthday it was Ogier who clinched the
fastest time with Latvala and Mikkelsen making
it a VW 1, 2, 3! After just over three kilometres of
furious action it was now more than 250 kilometres back to Faro.
Scratch for Hyundai
Four crashes for others
Sordo made a good start in the first Friday stage
and handed Hyundai its first scratch in the WRC.
On the next stage he repeated this performance
and for the first time Hyundai was leading a WRC
event. Ott Tanak was another surprise as he
was second, 2.8 seconds behind. At Almodovar
15/42
This time Mikko Hirvonen was not prepared to just give away the rally, but Ogier showed
everyone he is te reigning champion and intends to be that next year too...
(stage 4) things went wrong for both Kubica and
Evans. Kubica hit a tree and ripped off a wheel.
Evans rolled off a slope after missing a braking
point. The repeat of the Silves stage (Stage 5)
provided new drama. Latvala who had his share
of Portugal problems in the last years, again did
not make it to the finish unscaved. “In a lefthander
we went wide,” said the Finn. Before I get it back
on track we hit a big hole, went on two wheels ,
then hit a bank and started to roll…” After 2009,
2010 and 2012 this was his fourth big crash here.
Two stages later it was Meeke’s turn. His sick codriver Paul Nagle warned him by reading “Elfyn’s
corner” but that did not help. The Irishman rolled
off at the same spot as Evan’s did that morning.
Dani Sordo handed Hyundai it’s first scratch, and was even leading the rally, But a broken
driveshaft ended his succesful drive.