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WRC Portugal

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Hanninen is the next driver to cross the finishing line - 9.1s off Latvala's ultimate pace.
Looks like Prokop has had a brush with something within the stage as his front left tyre is massively down on pressure at the finish. His time is 12m16.0s.
Solberg's time is 11m59.8s, which means Mikkelsen is now into fourth place overall.
Ostberg sets the quickest time on SS15 - 11m38.7s! We now wait for the arrival of Hirvonen and Ogier...
"It was OK," said Ostberg. "I enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.

We bet you did!
Ogier looks to have been losing a bit of time in the stage due to his tyre choice. Hirvonen, meanwhile, completes the stage in 11m52.5s.
SS15 results: 1 Ostberg 11m38.7s; 2 Hirvonen +6.0s; 3 Mikkelsen +9.7s; 4 Ogier +13.8s; 5 Latvala +14.2s; 6 Evans +19.5s.

Overall: 1 Ogier 3h24m38.7s; 2 Hirvonen +35.4s; 3 Ostberg +1m08.1s; 4 Mikkelsen +4m40.5s; 5 Solberg +4m49.2s; 6 Neuville +7m40.0s.
The final stage is the second pass through Loule and begins at 11:05.
There is a new rule in place for this weekend's powerstage event.

All driver are now eligible to score points in it following controversy over the scoring system in Mexico last month.
Ostberg and Mikkelsen both retired on the Saturday and restarted Sunday's leg under Rally 2 rules, but regulations meant they were unable to score points in the final powerstage.
Both were frustrated that drivers who retired in Friday's leg were able to score.

Indeed, Hirvonen, whose Ford Fiesta RS was sidelined with alternator problems on the Friday, returned to take the final bonus point.
The recent WRC Commission meeting in Paris proposed the rules be changed to allow all returning drivers to score.


In WRC2 news, Lorenzo Bertelli has gone all politically correct.

His F*ckmatie team has become the even stranger-named Fnckmatie...
The starting order for the powerstage is slightly different to the previous stages. It looks like this:

1 Evans
2 Latvala
3 Al Qassimi
4 Hanninen
5 Prokop
6 Neuville
7 Solberg
8 Mikkelsen
9 Ostberg
10 Hirvonen
11 Ogier
Latvala needs to keep scoring points if he is to keep his championship hopes alive. Three points today is an absolute must for the Finn.
Latvala completed this stage in 8m57.8s this morning. Evans sets a benchmark of 8m59.2 this time around.
"It was very good stage," says the VW driver. "I was happy. It was a good run."
Al Qassimi is the third to tackle this final stage. He was 17.3s down on Evans's second split time.
And he inevitably slots into third position - 36.3s behind Latvala.
Hanninen's Hyundai crosses the line and finishes 14.4s off Latvala's time.
Neuville is winding his way through the stage and is 31.0s off the pace at the 10.0km split.
The Belgian's car looks a right handful and seems to be lacking traction.
"Something on the transmission is broken and I had to run in rear wheel drive only," says Neuville at the end. He finished 49.0s behind Latvala.
Mikkelsen is going well through SS16 and is 5.8s quicker than Solberg after the first two splits.
Ostberg is a second down on Latvala on the last split, can he pull something out of the bag in the final few kilometres?
Ostberg reaches the finish in 8m46.0s - exactly 1.0s behind Latvala. The Norweigan can be very happy with his performance this weekend and a podium finish is a deserving reward.
Hirvonen is 3.8s slower than Latvala at the second split. Ogier, meanwhile, is quickest of all at the first interval...
Hirvonen's time is 8m49.5s and the M-Sport driver finishes second overall.

"I'm really happy with that, it was good to have a rally with no problems."
Ogier

Ogier


And Ogier wins the powerstage and the Rally or Portugal!
SS16 stage results: 1 Ogier 8m41.7s; 2 Latvala +3.3s; 3 Ostberg +4.3s; 4 Hirvonen +7.8s; 5 Mikkelsen +10.0s
And the final results of the Rally of Portugal:

1 Ogier 3h33m20.4s; 2 Hirvonen +43.2s; 3 Ostberg +1m12.4s; 4 Mikkelsen +4m50.5s; 5 Solberg +5m10.2s; 6 Prokop +8m27.2s
With the 2014 Rally of Portugal consigned to the history books we turn our attention to the island kingdom of Bahrain, and the GP2 Series sprint race.

Stoffel Vandoorne scored a remarkable victory on his series debut yesterday, so will start eighth on the reversed-grid line-up for ART Grand Prix.

Carlin's Felipe Nasr starts on pole and will be looking to kickstart his title campaign after a disappointing run yesterday. He finished second in this race last year, just 0.08s behind Sam Bird.

By: Dan Cross, David Evans, Scott Mitchell, Charles Bradley

Published: