Round three of the wrc saw the drivers and teams head to the Algarve for Rally Portugal!
Rally Portugal saw something that doesnt happen often.....Sebastien Loeb not fighting for the win.
but... settling for second place to his team mate Sebastien Ogier, who took his first win of the season.
The final podium spot went to Fords Jari-Matti Latvala 3 mins 22.1seconds off Sebastien Ogiers final time for the rally, despite the Finn having problems on the event.
Leading the rally at one point Jari-Matti's hopes of victory were dashed when a driveshaft broke in his car on SS12 of the event and he had a puncture on the stage following.
It was not a rally for the second Ford driver either. There was a bit of drama between him and Sebastien Loeb when on stage 9 Hirvonen who was into the stage before Loeb got a puncture and stop to change it.
He resumed his charge in front of Loeb who lost time running in the dust clouds created by Hirvonen’s Ford Fiesta RS WRC.
Loeb switched on his windscreen wipers in an effort to see where he was going in his Citroen DS3 WRC but lost vital ground to leader, the Ford-driver Jari-Matti Latvala.At the end of stage stop control Loeb nudged the bumper of Hirvonen’s car with his before telling WRC TV that Hirvonen had “destroyed” his race. Loeb felt that Mikko did not stop to let him pass to protect his team mate Latvala who was leading the rally.
After cooling down Sebastien and Mikko made up. Sebastien realised that it was the choice of Ford to tell Mikko to keep driving and Mikko admitted that if in the same situation he would of also been angry and just like that they put the spat behind them!
Another troubled rally for Petter Solberg who despite being fastest on the opening stage of the rally, suffered a setback in his fight for victory when he picked up 4 punctures on the second day of the rally.
Having lost so much time on the stages and not having the 4 wheels on his car needed to make it back to service safely the team decided that having already lost 10 minutes it was beneficial to stop and re-enter under Superally for the final day. Petter Solberg (did what he had become very good at this season) climbed back up the leaderboard to finish 6th place.
Another problem for the Finns happened when on SS15 Mikko Hirvonen dropped back to 5th afterhis Ford Fiesta RS WRC suffered a broken driveshaft 10 kilometres from the finish of stage 15.
The 3 extra points for the powerstage win went to Sebastien Loeb, 2 to Jari-Matti Latvala and 1 to rally winner Sebastien Ogier.
So it was the second rally where the DS3 came out on top. Leaving Rally Portugal it was clear to see that maybe the Fiesta was bit fragile, a couple of driveshaft failures and a couple of suspension issues.
It may have been another win for Citroen but no-one was admitting defeat!
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