WRC Rally of Portugal
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Meeke is 1.2s off Neuville after two splits.
David Evans
The threat of rain and generally lower temperatures has caused much head-scratching in terms of tyre choice for this afternoon. All the Citroen drivers and M-Sport’s Teemu Suninen have taken five hard tyres. Lappi and Evans take four hard and one soft; Ogier, Mikkelsen and Paddon go with three hard and two softs; Neuville has six softs and rally leader Sordo takes five softs.
Meanwhile back on the stage Sordo is seven seconds down on Neuville after two splits.
David Evans
Breen’s co-driver Scott Martin had a busy lunchtime, re-writing the notes he’d just made for the Porto street stage. The crews recced the town centre crowd-pleaser on their way back up the road from the morning’s three gravel stages. Martin told Autosport: “It’s quite unusual to do that and I have to say it feels quite alien to be doing the recce in the rally car. It’s not a great environment to be making fresh notes – that’s why I’ve just sat down and re-written them.” Here’s the old version...
Mikkelsen is at the starting point, he moves past the waiting Evans' Fiesta which may indicate that his problem is sorted.
Mikkelsen is moving now too.
Here’s a reminder of WRC2 frontrunner Gus Greensmith's stage notes for this one:
SS7 Ponte de Lima (17.11 miles)
Definitely the most difficult stage of the loop. If you get a good flow in there then you can make up time, but it will be really rough one the second pass of this one.
The flow comes from the notes, if you have good notes and you get into a good rhythm for this stage then it will work – but it’s vital to do that. I re-wrote the notes in here for this year and we’ll see how it worked. But suspension is crucial in this stage, it does get rough and you need to be able to carry the speed.
SS7 Ponte de Lima (17.11 miles)
Definitely the most difficult stage of the loop. If you get a good flow in there then you can make up time, but it will be really rough one the second pass of this one.
The flow comes from the notes, if you have good notes and you get into a good rhythm for this stage then it will work – but it’s vital to do that. I re-wrote the notes in here for this year and we’ll see how it worked. But suspension is crucial in this stage, it does get rough and you need to be able to carry the speed.
The bonnet's down now, MIkkelsen gets back in and suits up. But it's not clear the extent he's been able to resolve the problem.
Mikkelsen is frantically working on his car at a road side, with the bonnet up - after his problems in the last stage. He's missed his starting time, as Sordo tow minutes later gets going in SS7.
Information
Another round-up:
Leading SS6 times
1 Neuville 10m35.5s
2 Breen +0.0s
3 Suninen +0.2s
4 Evans +2.1s
5 Paddon +4.5s
6 Sordo +8.8s
Overall classification
1 Paddon 1h14m21.4s
2 Sordo +3.2s
3 Breen +4.4s
4 Neuville +9.1s
5 Meeke +11.0s
6 Suninen +12.5s
7 Evans +12.5s
8 Ostberg +24.3s
9 Lappi +27.2s
10 Mikkelsen +1m08.04s
Leading SS6 times
1 Neuville 10m35.5s
2 Breen +0.0s
3 Suninen +0.2s
4 Evans +2.1s
5 Paddon +4.5s
6 Sordo +8.8s
Overall classification
1 Paddon 1h14m21.4s
2 Sordo +3.2s
3 Breen +4.4s
4 Neuville +9.1s
5 Meeke +11.0s
6 Suninen +12.5s
7 Evans +12.5s
8 Ostberg +24.3s
9 Lappi +27.2s
10 Mikkelsen +1m08.04s
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"Drive flat out and hope for the best," says Suninen on his approach. "Next one is a long stage so it's difficult."
Third-quickest time for Suninen, a 10m35.7s.
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"Smoke in the car," confirms Ostberg. "For sure it's burning somewhere, it seems to be OK, but I don't know."
Ostberg finishes with a 10m45.7s but his Citroen is smouldering... He leaps out of the car to check the machine.
That means Paddon is back leading overall from Sordo too, by 3.2s.
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"We're just trying to play the long game with tyres, just trying to manage it," says Paddon. "Difficult feeling. Got three softs on, probably not the best tyre choice but we;re making the most of it."
...4.5s off Neuville's time
Paddon is home and is fourth quickest - 10m40 flat
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"It was very rough, clean enough run though," says Evans. "There were places where you could take more risks but it was about balancing that with a clean run."
Good time from Evans, second quickest, 2.1s off Neuville.
It seems this rally is a matter of survival right now...
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"The car is definitely but unfortunately the rear damper is fully broken, says Lappi. "Luckily it [the next stage] is slower. Not nice."
Lappi clocks a 10m46.9s, 11.5s off the top but still third quickest.
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"About 3km, I carried it all the way," says Meeke when asked where his tyre failed. "So rough".
Meeke drops a lot of time late in the stage and comes in with a 10m54.0s, nearly 20s off Neuville - no wonder, his right rear tyre is blown!
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"I just slide now, very slow," says Sordo. "Three tyres are OK but one I think the rim is a little bit broken. I have one tyre really damaged, I have to go slow. I made a big mistake with the soft tyres."
Sordo clocks a 10m44.3, almost nine seconds slower than Neuville.
Mikkelsen crosses the line having dropped 1m06s to Neuville, shaking his weary arms. He refuses to talk.
Crash
Looks like Mikkelsen's power steering has failed - or has something failed at the front left? Either way, it explains the time loss - and he still has the Ponte de Lima stage to go.
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"Very very rough," says Neuville, "many many surprises in the stage, I tried my best but I have to think about what happened in the stage before." Were his soft tyres the right choice? "Probably not"
Stopwatch
Neuville gets a stage time on 10m35.5s
Mikkelsen loses 34s to Neuville in the next split too - if the Hyundai in trouble?
...and Mikkelsen has dropped 17s to Neuville before the third split!
At the second split Neuville remains quicker than Mikkelsen, by 1.8s - and Sordo gets between them, 0.4s off Neuville!
David Evans
And while we’re talking about what drivers drink in service, Esapekka Lappi’s has to be the oddest-looking concoction.
David Evans
While we’re on Breen, anybody doubting just how much milk he likes in his tea, take a look at this picture…
By: Matt Beer
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