Meeke takes lead into the final day

David Bodapati May 22, 2016

881 1 minute read

Today’s route took the crews east of Porto for two identical loops of three stages covering 165.28 competitive kilometres. Meeke was again on the pace from the outset and the DS 3 WRC driver was fastest in all three of the morning’s tests to extend his advantage stage by stage. This afternoon the weight of an extra spare wheel slowed him, but with more than a minute in hand earlier in the day, he was able to continue controlling the field. At the head of the field, Ogier struggled more today with the road sweeping effect, allowing Mikkelsen to close the gap, overhaul Sordo and move into third, just 3.1 seconds adrift of Ogier.

Dani Sordo held third going into the day, but the Spaniard was at a loss to explain dropping time in the opening stage this morning and with the car moving around a lot, he lost more time in the following two stages and was overhauled by Mikkelsen in SS12, the longest stage of the rally. He has slipped further adrift but holds a good advantage over Eric Camilli, the Frenchman enjoying a great day of competition and on track for his best result of the season. After his power steering problems on the opening day, Jari-Matti Latvala is out of contention for the podium, but the Finn is sixth and ahead of Mads Østberg in the second Fiesta RS WRC. Martin Prokop holds eighth ahead of the lead FIA WRC 2 Championship drivers, Pontus Tidemand and Nicolas Fuchs. In the FIA Junior WRC Championship, Martin Koci heads the contenders in his DS 3 R3, 30.8 seconds ahead of Simone Tempestini.

Leading retirements of the day included Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville with a fuel problem, Stephane Lefebvre with damaged suspension and Citroën driver Khalid Al Qassimi.

Rally de Portugal – Unofficial Classification after Section 5

1. Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle	DS3 WRC	3hr 16min 11.4sec
2. Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC	3hr 16min 56.7sec
3. Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger	Volkswagen Polo R WRC	3hr 16min 59.8sec
4. Dani Sordo/Marc Marti	Hyundai i20 WRC	3hr 17min 31.4sec
5. Eric Camilli/Benjamin Veillas	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3hr 19min 15.6sec
6. Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila	Volkswagen Polo R WRC	3hr 20min 19.2sec
7. Mads Østberg/Ola Fløene	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3hr 22min 44.2sec
8. Martin Prokop/Jan Tomanek	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	3hr 24min 23.2sec
9. Pontus Tidemand/Jonas Andersson	Skoda Fabia R5	3hr 26min 05.6sec
10. Nicolas Fuchs/Fernando Mussano	Skoda Fabia R5