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Rally de Portugal 2010 - First WRC win for Ogier
After two and a half days and 15 stages of high drama and action, the scene is set for a thrilling climax to this year’s Vodafone Rally de Portugal, with two more gravel stages and the second superspecial to run. Sebastien Ogier still leads, now just 10.1 seconds ahead of Sebastien Loeb, who reduced the gap to the leader by 11 seconds this morning. At the same rate, the two would be separated by less than a second as they fight for the win in front of thousands of fans and the live TV cameras.
Behind them, the battle for the final podium position rages. Dani Sordo climbed to third this morning, as Petter Solberg suffered a loose steering rack and the Spaniard has a slender margin, of just 2.2 seconds with three stages to go.
Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen is also on a charge, chasing third and is just 6.5 seconds behind Solberg after his problems. Further down the field, Federico Villagra and Khalid Al-Qassimi are scrapping over ninth place, the two separated by just 3.2 seconds and swapping times on every stage.
In the S-WRC, the gaps are far
larger and it looks to be Jari Ketoma who will claim the spoils at the
Algarve Stadium this afternoon. In the J-WRC, Kevin Abbring has a six-minute
lead over Karl Kruuda while locals Armindo Araujo and Bernardo Sousa are
in 14th and 15th respectively, too far apart to be fighting for position.
