World champion Sébastien Loeb overturned his Citroën DS3 WRC and was forced to leave Rally de Portugal on the 1st day, when he completed kilometer 7 of the third special (Ourique).
In addition to Loeb's spectacular crash, there were more riders who failed to make it to the Estádio do Algarve. Dani Sordo was one of them. The Spaniard retired after the second qualifying of the day, with electrical problems in the Mini, which is why the headlights failed.
Others managed to take the car to the service, but with a lot of sacrifice. Martin Prokop's Ford engine never ran fully. Sébastien Ogier had clutch and, later, electrical problems on the Skoda Fabia S2000.
Finally, Armindo Araújo went off the road in the first special of the night and confessed to being frustrated by finishing the stage in 32nd place overall.
With Araújo's misfortune and after the resignation of the Azorean Ricardo Moura (Mitsubishi), Pedro Meireles (Mitsubishi Lancer) started to lead the Portuguese “fleet”.
With these setbacks, the classification is led by Latvala, followed by Petter Solberg and Mikko Hirvonen.
After having given a show at the Lisbon Super Special, in front of the Jerónimos Monastery, drivers and co-drivers faced three qualifiers held at night, something that had not happened in the Rally de Portugal for many years.
This additional ingredient, together with the threat of rain, which eventually appeared, was enough for a succession of events that dictated a ranking led by Ford's men.
With rain falling only in some areas of the sections, the specials presented different ground conditions. Some riders still had to deal with the dust that hung in the air at certain times, but those who started farther back had to pass on surfaces with a lot of water, especially in the last qualifying, Ourique.
There were also those who found it difficult to drive at night and did not adapt to the inherent poor visibility. These confessed that they did not feel comfortable to accelerate and run the risk of having an accident.
One of the highlights of the day was related to the tactics initiated by the Ford and Citroën drivers just the day before, after qualifying.
Loeb and Hirvonen chose to open the road, while Solberg came out in 16th and Latvala was 17th. Despite not having much dust, the world champion was apprehensive about the lack of visibility at night and having passed through areas with a lot of mud.
Ford drivers also felt a lack of traction but found the specials in better condition after the cars that left in front of them “cleaned” the road.
That was the main problem for Loeb, who suffered from being second on the road. Halfway through the third round, the Frenchman missed a corner and ended up overturning the DS3 WRC.
In this way, the leader of the World Cup lost any hope of winning again in Portugal, but both the driver and the co-driver were unharmed from the accident.
This Friday, Latvala starts the first section with an advantage of 2,6 seconds over Petter Solberg, while Mikko Hirvonen occupies the third position, five seconds behind the leader of the Vodafone Rally de Portugal.
Today, the second day of the Rally de Portugal takes place, a stage with six special qualifying races, totaling 132,68 timed kilometers (Tavira, Alcaria and São Brás de Alportel).
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