World Rally Pics
It s been a successful day two of Vodafone Rally de Portugal for the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team who now has both nominated cars in Manufacturer point s contention. The team currently sits third in the 2007 standings and will be looking to maintain their position heading into tomorrow s final leg.
Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila continued their impressive form to finish the day in a comfortable sixth. Norwegians Henning Solberg and Cato Menkerud improved dramatically overnight to climb three spots into seventh position by day s end.
20-year-old Matthew Wilson and Northern Irish co-driver Michael Orr set a good solid pace all day to finish in 13th just twelve seconds behind local favorite Armindo Araujo.
Heavy down-pours this morning made conditions look more like a mud-bath with deep mud taking away the grip and traction so readily found yesterday. Conditions cleared up for the afternoon s loop making surface predictions extremely difficult.
Tyre wear became a major issue this afternoon as some drivers elected to go with softer compounds predicting muddy roads while those who chose a harder tyre seemed to benefit with the roads drying up quite a fair amount under the appearing sun.
