The Volkswagen Motorsport team drivers, Sebastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala, continued to dominate the second day of the 2013 Vodafone Rally de Portugal. Ogier won each of the three stages in the afternoon, a repeat of the morning’s loop, to stretch his lead over Latvala to 34.8s as the crews headed back to Faro for the end of day service.
Latvala admitted he was looking backwards for the day to ensure he kept Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT’s Mikko Hirvonen at bay and second-fastest on the first two stages did just that. However, Hirvonen claimed the second spot on the last stage, as Latvala felt one of his tyres going soft.
Fourth-fastest on every stage was Qatar M-Sport WRT’s Mads Ostberg, who admitted that he was pushing hard yet still acting as road cleaner, since the field had brought more loose gravel onto the World Rally Car’s line from the earlier runs through. By the end of the day, he had climbed from 56th overall to 12th.
Another driver on a mission was Andreas Mikkelsen, who lost time yesterday with power steering problems. He was consistently quick as he learned the VW PoloR and managed to climb even further up the field, ending the day in sixth place. Ahead of him, Nasser Al-Attiyah was pushing to stay in front and holds fifth with Evgeny Novikov just managing to remain in fourth, despite suspension problems in the last stage.
There were dramas for Martin Prokop, who suffered a broken driveshaft in the middle stage of the afternoon, losing time as his car became two wheel-drive and Michal Kosciuszko’s Mini cut-out and he was unable to restart the engine for some time.
In WRC2, Esapekka Lappi ends the day with a healthy 3m54s lead, following the retirement of Robert Kubica, whose Citroen DS3 RRC stopped with transmission problems. Robert Barrable held second for most of the afternoon but a combination of a hard-charging Sepp Weigand and a puncture on the last stage dropped him back to third.
In WRC3, Bryan Bouffier maintained the healthy lead he developed as other drivers suffered problems in the morning, admitting he was driving around the worst of the rocks and ruts in his Citroen DS3 R3. Second is Sebastien Chardonnay, in the same boat, driving for a finish.
The Junior WRC event finished at the end of the second day and by the end of the final stage, it was Pontius Tidemund who took the category win on the first event of the 2013 series, after a rally-long battle with Jose Antonio Suarez.
The third and final day of the event will be the most challenging, with two loops of two stages, including the two runs through the 52.3Km Almodovar, which forms the Power Stage for the second run, to close the event.