Zoom Rossetti coming through

Before returning to the Algarve Stadium service park, the IRC contenders completed their run across Rally Portugal's Almodovar stage, the longest of the event. The run was a major blow for François Duval: with a broken beall bearing on his Fiat Grande Punto, the Belgian retired from the rally and loses his overall second place.

Previously third in the general standings, Nicolas Vouilloz also encountered problems when he had to stop and change a punctured rear tyre on his Peugeot 207 Super 2000 shortly after starting out on this route.

Giandomenico Basso took advantage of the situation and signed his first stage win of the rally by establishing a quickest run of 16:32.4 at the wheel of his Abarth Grande Punto.

Basso was followed by the Peugeot of rally leader Luca Rossetti, 6.7 seconds behind. Jan Kopecky crossed the line with an additional 4.5 seconds on his running time, also racing aboard a Peugeot.

An inspired Anton Alen came next, taking fourth place and bringing his Fiat close to third-placed Kopecky despite reporting engine issues. Bruno Magalhaes and Manfred Stohl took fifth and sixth positions at the controls of their respective Peugeot 207s, with the latter 16.9 seconds down from the best time on this stage.

Juho Hanninen accomplished the best result of the Group N runners with his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, taking seventh place ahead of his Finnish compatriot and rival, Andreas Aigner, who is racing with a same-model car.

Miguel Campos, competing under the BFGoodrich Team Drivers programme with a Peugeot 207 Super 2000, established the ninth-best time on this stage and thereby accomplished his best result so far on this event.

Didier Auriol's Fiat Grande Punto rounded off the top ten with a time 40.5 seconds away from the stage winner.

After completing the fifteenth-best time, Dani Sola is not very certain his Fiat will make it through to the end of the day: "Engine problems are worse. Since shakedown the things are not well, but we will try to finish."

Thanks to his adversaries' problems and mishaps, Luca Rossetti's overall lead has become comfortable as it now stands at 47 seconds over Jan Kopecky. The three following drivers – Didier Auriol, Juho Hanninen and Nicolas Vouilloz – all have more than a two-minute delay on the Italian.

The Rally Portugal contenders now head for the service park before resuming their second loop over the three demanding stages covered this morning.

Daniel BASTIEN
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