Sébastien Ogier won this Sunday the 2013 edition of the Vodafone Rally de Portugal, achieving his third victory in the Portuguese competition and also the third consecutive first place in a stage of the World Rally Championship (WRC) this season.
The Frenchman has been ahead since the second stage on Friday and not even technical problems during the last day of the race prevented him from conquering the first place on the podium.
The excitement was running high, with the decision left for the last stage, the Power Stage on the second run through the unusually long stretch of Almodôvar, where Ogier won the extra three points and secured the final advantage for Hirvonen of 58,2 seconds.
Ogier and his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala finished the second day in the top two positions and were chasing the double for Volkswagen Motorsport.
But both had problems this morning, the first with the clutch and the second with the transmission. And if the Frenchman managed not to compromise his goals, the Finn cannot say the same, losing second place to his Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT compatriot Mikko Hirvonen.
Latvala managed, despite the problems, to run fast enough to finish third on the podium. Among the Portuguese, Miguel Barbosa was the best and secured the 18th best time among riders in all categories.
Among the riders who are in contention for the title of world champion and were in Portugal, when we're only on the fourth round of the season, Ostberg staged a fantastic recovery after a huge accident on the first day, finishing in eighth and Dani Sordo, who ran well in the first stages, he took the opposite path and finished 12th.
Final classification:
1st Sébastien Ogier Volkswagen Polo WRC
2nd Mikko Hirvonen Citroën DS3 WRC in 58,2s
3rd Jari-Matti Latvala Volkswagen Polo WRC at 4m04,5s
4th Evgeny Novikov Ford Fiesta WRC at 5m27,7s
5th Nasser Al-Attiyah Ford Fiesta WRC at 7m43,5s
(...)
8th Mads Ostberg Ford Fiesta WRC at 15m43,6s
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12th Dani Sordo Citroën DS3 WRC at 30m36,8s
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18th Miguel J. Barbosa Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX at 38m32,7s
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