Wrc.com stage summary
Stage data: SS11, Almodovar 2 (26.23 kilometres)
Stage description:
By Team Abu Dhabi co-driver Michael Orr: “This stage starts very, very fast on gravel before we hit a Tarmac section for a number of kilometres. We then go through a village and take a hairpin left. Just on the exit of the village we’re back onto gravel. You lose the flow a bit because it’s narrow with concrete blocks on the outside and inside of the corners. You have to be very neat with your line and make sure you hear every word the co-driver is saying. It’s probably 10 kilometres before the end when it opens up again and is more fast and flowing. But just before the finish we go in between some trees in a very narrow section.”
How the action unfolded:
Sebastien Ogier has extended his margin out front on Vodafone Rally de Portugal by claiming his fifth stage win of the gravel event.
Ogier was 3.6 seconds faster than Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb to increase his lead over Jari-Matti Latvala to 11.2s.
“It’s a good stage and we had a good drive on this one,” said Ogier. “It’s looking good [for the victory] but there is a long way to go and there will be a lot of loose gravel on the road tomorrow.”
Ford driver Latvala was 4.3s slower than Ogier through the stage. He said: “In some places I felt the suspension was too soft in some bumps. But in the low stuff it was okay.”
Loeb admitted his efforts to close the gap to Latvala in the overall standings had made little impact. “We tried hard but it was impossible to make any difference to Jari-Matti,” said Loeb. “We had the car more stiff than in the morning and maybe we lose a bit of grip.”
Despite reporting a powersteering problem, Henning Solberg has closed to within 1.1s of M-Sport Stobart team-mate Matthew Wilson, who feared he had damaged the exhaust of his Fiesta on a heavy landing.
Armindo Araujo completed the stage with his MINI John Cooper Works Super 2000 running on three cylinders. He also lost time stopping to change a puncture and has dropped down the leaderboard.
Khalid Al-Qassimi stopped in the stage breaking his Fiesta’s rear suspension hitting a rock.
Key moment:
Ogier extends advantage in Portugal.
Credit: World Rally Championship (www.wrc.com)
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