Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Hanninen carves into Magalhaes' lead

Juho Hanninen has reduced Bruno Magalhaes' lead in the Rally Azores to just 2.2 seconds going into the final day

Hanninen mounted a charge on today's third loop just as Magalhaes (Peugeot Portugal) began to lose confidence in his car - which he later traced to a puncture that had developed on SS11. He changed the tyres before SS12, then struggled with a wheel imbalance.

With Skoda driver Hanninen winning the day's final stage, the pair go into Saturday's deciding seven stages with just 2.2s between them.

Hanninen's pace took him past his team-mate Jan Kopecky on SS8, although the Czech driver is also within 8.2s of Magalhaes' lead.

Kris Meeke's tough rally continued as in addition to a worsening fever, he also suffered his second puncture of the day on SS10.

That dropped the Peugeot UK entry back to fifth place behind Andreas Mikkelsen's Ford - and Meeke was unable to regain the position on the next stage, which means he has the added disadvantage of running first on the road tomorrow when the top five are reversed in the starting order. Meeke reckoned, however, that even if he had a trouble-free run, the works Skodas were now a class apart.

Pos  Driver             Car           Time/Gap
 1.  Bruno Magalhaes    Peugeot     1h28m35.8s
 2.  Juho Hanninen      Skoda           + 2.2s
 3.  Jan Kopecky        Skoda           + 8.2s
 4.  Andreas Mikkelsen  Ford           + 48.9s
 5.  Kris Meeke         Peugeot        + 51.7s
 6.  Bernardo Sousa     Ford         + 2m23.6s
 7.  Ricardo Moura      Mitsubishi   + 3m38.6s
 8.  Pedro Peres        Mitsubishi   + 6m28.6s
 9.  Pedro Vale         Mitsubishi   + 6m55.9s
10.  Sergio Silva       Subaru       + 7m08.8s

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Magalhaes pulls away in Azores
Next article Hanninen takes Azores lead

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe