Rally Portugal / Round-up
Round-up
Jipocar Czech National Team
Volkswagen
Things are looking
up for Martin Prokop.
After disappointments
in Monte Carlo and
Sweden he finally
scored his first points
in Mexico. He had another good solid run in
Portugal adding some
more championship
points.
The German manufacturer is still
well on the way for a new success.
Ogier won the rally and PowerStage thus grabbing some additional points. Latvala still hasn’t
been freed of the Portugal jinx and
did not score points and Mikkelsen
took a precautious approach bringing him a well-earned fourth place.
Enough to now share the third/
fourth place with Mads Østberg.
Jari Matti Latvala is now almost
one rally win away from Ogier.
M-Sport World Rallyteam
17/42
The Cumbrians had mixed feelings about the Portugal outing. To
start on the positive side, Mikko
Hirvonen seems to have found his
family again. The warm bath that
M-Sport has always been to him
seems to have its effect again.
Second spot here was not because others hampered, but because the Finn was doing well.
We hope he can continue this way
to put some spices in the championship. Elfyn Evans did not have
a good rally. After his violent off he
had to find his rhythm again. In the
end he was performing half way
the top ten. The (semi) privateers
like Tanak and Solberg initially per-
formed very well but Tanak went
off, a bit like in his earlier M-Sport
days. Reaching the top spots
doesn’t seem difficult for him.
Staying there till the finish is still
an issue. A welcome comeback
was there again for Henning Solberg. He improved his last appearance in Sweden (7th) by being fifth
here an achievement. It hopefully
paves the way to a more extensive programme for this year. On
the entry list for Sardinia we found
his name and Ilka Minor seems to
be fully booked for the whole WRC
season as Evgeny Novikov found
out when he was asking her to be
his co-pilot for Finland.