BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen lead Rally de Portugal after today’s sun-kissed opening day in the hills above the Algarve. After a strong morning in unfavourable conditions, the Finns moved ahead this afternoon and built a 15.0sec lead in their Ford Focus RS World Rally Car. Team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila led initially before rolling 150 metres down a hillside, escaping injury thanks to the strength of their Focus RS.
This fourth round of the FIA World Rally Championship began with a spectacular speed test last night in Faro’s international soccer stadium. It moved into top gear this morning in the Serra do Caldeirão hills, north-west of the holiday resort, where competitors tackled two identical loops of three special stages covering 134.00km.
Hirvonen was second in the start order, a less than favourable position as the dry tracks on the western edge of the hills were coated in loose gravel. The early starters unwittingly swept the stones clear to leave a cleaner and faster line for those behind, but Hirvonen shrugged off that disadvantage and ended the opening loop in third, just 6.4sec from the lead. The 28-year-old won the afternoon’s opening test to take the lead and extended his advantage over the remaining two stages.
“It’s great to be leading and I will give everything tomorrow to try to retain that,” said Hirvonen. “I will be first in the start order with a lot of dust and gravel on the surface which will make it difficult. I don’t know if my lead is big enough to offset that disadvantage, and I think start order will play a big part over the next two days, but I have defended my lead from the front before so it can be done. Before the rally, leading tonight wasn’t in my plan but after Jari-Matti’s crash our strategy changed.
“This morning my pace notes were a little slow for these roads. I think that was a carryover from the previous round in Cyprus where the stages were much slower. I wasn’t happy with my rear differential so we replaced it and that brought a big improvement,” said Hirvonen.
It wasn’t a happy birthday for Latvala. The Finn, who is 24 today, took full advantage of his lower start position to set fastest time through the morning’s opening two tests to build a 10.6sec lead. However, Latvala crashed heavily in the following stage, his Focus RS plunging over a roadside barrier and rolling down a hillside, eventually coming to rest 150 metres from the track. Video footage showed the car rolled almost 20 times. Incredibly both Latvala and Anttila escaped without serious injury thanks to the strength of the car.
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