WRC Portugal preview

Friday, 25 March 2011 11:00

The terrain and stages selected make this one of the most technically demanding rallies on the World Rally Championship.

The scene of many a classic battle for victory, the slippery and dusty stages in the Algarve have proven as popular with fans and teams alike as those previously held in Porto. In recent times, this rally has proven to be especially cruel to Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team) and it also showed the rest of the rally field in 2010 that Sebastien Loeb (Citroen Total World Rally Team) is not unbeatable as Sebastien Ogier (Citroen Total World Rally Team) stormed to a spectacular win. This is the WRC Rally de Portugal...

WRC Rally Mexico didn’t offer up any answers in the battle between Ford and Citroen, as both manufacturers didn’t have a straight fight for the win. This second gravel event of 2011 will offer up more insight into gravel pace for the remainder of the season. Having said that, Loeb did win rather convincingly in Mexico after his team-mate Ogier crashed out. Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team) and Latvala suffered from poor luck in South America, but I’d not discount either of them being on the podium come Sunday afternoon.

Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson (Petter Solberg World Rally Team) have set themselves up as the fastest of the privateer crews, and are still looking for that elusive first win in the WRC as a privateer team. Solberg has been chased hard in this little battle by fellow countryman Mads Ostberg (M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team).
Ostberg’s pace has been surprised many WRC pundits, not for his speed in stages but by the level of commitment he has shown thus far. He has catapulted himself into the top five WRC drivers at this stage in the WRC by sheer determination.

From these abovementioned drivers will emerge the winner of this weekend’s event. Should none suffer from mechanical gremlins or a run of punctures as was the case for Hirvonen in Mexico, then this rally will be able to shed more light on just how fast these new crop of WRC cars are. With that will come an intense battle for the overall win from SS1 to the finish. There cannot be any more of the shenanigans of 2009 and 2010 when team orders slowed cars for better road position the following day: the entry list is simply too competitive!

The route covers familiar territory in the Serra do Caldeirão hills above the Algarve coastline. Estádio Algarve, built on the edge of Faro for the 2004 European Soccer Championships, is again the base. It hosts the single service park, but the super special stage inside the arena which started and closed the event will not be used. Instead, the rally journeys 300km north to Lisbon on Thursday for the start ceremony and opening speed test over asphalt roads bordering the Jerónimos Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Once back in Faro, competitors face three long legs, each comprising two identical loops of stages. The only significant changes are the reintroduction of roads in the final leg last used in 2007. That 31.04km test is the longest of the weekend and the second pass will form the live TV Power Stage. Competitors tackle 17 stages covering 385.37km in a route of 1363.55km.

Buckle up for WRC Rally de Portugal - it will not only be a very bumpy event but also a frightfully fast one! By Evan Rothman

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