WRC: Sebastien Ogier leads day 1 in PortugalFrom wrc.com
Sebastien Ogier will start day two of Rally de Portugal tomorrow with a 26.6 second-lead over teammate Dani Sordo following a hugely impressive performance by the Citroen Junior Team driver. Ogier, who was fastest on five of Friday’s six stages in his Citroen C4 WRC, profited when Sordo suffered a suspected sticking throttle on the last stage of the day, which enabled Ogier to extend his advantage by almost 20 seconds over the Spaniard. The 26-year-old now faces the prospect of tackling Saturday’s stages first on the road. With road clearing likely to be more of a factor on day two due to the rougher nature of the stage surface, Ogier will face a tall order if he is to remain at the head of the field. Defending world champion Sebastien Loeb of Citroen was fifth heading into the final stage of the day but vaulted up to third with the second fastest time through the last test. However, delays caused by clearing the road of the loose surface gravel in the morning means he is 44.8s off the lead. Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen is fourth overnight after admitting to backing off on the middle stage of the afternoon loop in order to preserve his tires for the final run. He is 2.1s down on Loeb with Petter Solberg (private Citroen C4) falling from third to fifth after destroying his right-rear tire with an all-out attack on the last stage of the day. Jari-Matti Latvala is sixth after admitting his hard-charging style had caused his tires to wear badly. American Ken Block rolled into retirement on stage four but is due to restart on day two after an initial inspection of his Focus revealed only light damage. Day 1 results, Rally of Portugal 1. Sébastien Ogier (Citroën C4) en 1h20’34’’4 2. Dani Sordo (Citroën C4) + 26’’6 3. Sébastien Loeb (Citroën C4) + 44’’8 4. Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus) + 46’’9 5. Petter Solberg (Citroën C4) + 49’’9 6. Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Focus) + 1’02’’8 7. Henning Solberg (Ford Focus) + 1’20’’7 8. Matthew Wilson (Ford Focus) + 1’54’’6 9. Mads Ostberg (Subaru Impreza) + 2’37’’3 10. Kimi Räikkönen (Citroën C4) + 3’18’’1 etc. |
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