Portugal: Latvala the “slowest”

At the start of the last special stage of the day, Felizes 2 (SS7), the four leading drivers, all four members of the official Citroën and Ford teams, were separated by only 6??9. Sébastien Ogier in front of Jari-Matti Latvala, Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen. An intense struggle since the first kilometers of the morning which ended with a final excessive slowness of the protagonists in order not to set off first on the road tomorrow morning.

The big “winner” will therefore have been Ogier who, from leader, finished in fourth place the first stage of the rally from Portugal. “ For now, no one knows what to expect tomorrow. I knew that if I wanted to stay in front, I had to build a big gap. It was not possible to do this because the conditions were substantially similar for everyone. ". He will therefore be fourth in the starting order tomorrow.

In front of him there will be Sébastien Loeb. The Alsatian was confronted throughout the day with difficulties in getting the most out of his DS3 WRC. " I'm not satisfied with the set-up. We're going to have to find a solution ", did he declare. Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen will have the difficult task of opening the road during the second stage of the event.

This first day was marked by the retirements of Mads Ostberg, victim of his gearbox, and Petter Solberg. The latter suffered three punctures this afternoon, the last of which had serious consequences in the ranking. He therefore preferred to stop his Citroën before the finish line in order to benefit from the Super Rally tomorrow, and thus not have to travel the 58 kilometers which then led to assistance.

Find the complete report of the WRC in Portugal in issue 1798 of AUTOhebdo, on newsstands Wednesday March 30.