WRC Rally of Portugal
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David Evans
Rally of Portugal is one of the best rounds of the championship to come on for stories of days gone by. And one of the most popular stories from previous generations has to be Walter Rohrl’s staggering win on the 1980 event, where he thrashed his Fiat team-mate through the Arganil stage to win the rally by 14 minutes. That victory was made slightly easier by a communal early bath taken by Hannu Mikkola and Ari Vatanen – both Finns crashed their Ford Escort RS1800s off the road in the same corner. Determined to make something out of the event, Rothmans issued this picture of the cars parked up next to each other – one the right way up and one not.
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Here’s a little reminder of WRC2 frontrunner Gus Greensmith's stage notes for this one:
SS5 Viana do Castelo (16.61 miles)
I divide this stage up into four sections. The first one, from the start, is quite a sandy base with some bedrock in places. The road’s medium width with a lot of irregular sharp and then long corners. It’s quite hard to get a flow in this section, but if you can make it all click then there’s good time to be made up with a nice rhythm.
After that we slot off onto a road that’s been used for quite a few years. This is where there are more marble-like rocks, the guys at the front will definitely lose time in this section. There’s a big jump in here and it’s been made even bigger for this year. On the recce I had a good look at the jump and I’m still not sure if it’s flat or not…
Then we slot back onto another road which is a new section, it’s quite narrow and quite rough there – I got a puncture there last year – so you have to keep your eyes open for the rocks. The final section takes you through the final junction and onto an older road which is OK, but quite loose.
SS5 Viana do Castelo (16.61 miles)
I divide this stage up into four sections. The first one, from the start, is quite a sandy base with some bedrock in places. The road’s medium width with a lot of irregular sharp and then long corners. It’s quite hard to get a flow in this section, but if you can make it all click then there’s good time to be made up with a nice rhythm.
After that we slot off onto a road that’s been used for quite a few years. This is where there are more marble-like rocks, the guys at the front will definitely lose time in this section. There’s a big jump in here and it’s been made even bigger for this year. On the recce I had a good look at the jump and I’m still not sure if it’s flat or not…
Then we slot back onto another road which is a new section, it’s quite narrow and quite rough there – I got a puncture there last year – so you have to keep your eyes open for the rocks. The final section takes you through the final junction and onto an older road which is OK, but quite loose.
Green flag
We're immediately onto the fifth stage, 16 miles around Viana do Castelo. Sebastien Ogier again gets us underway, followed by Thierry Neuville.
It remains to be seen how that affects manufacturers this afternoon now all the other classes have run on the stages…
It was assumed the early runners would be disadvantaged due to providing road cleaning duties. But in the final stage late runners such as Hayden Paddon and Craig Breen were at an apparent disadvantage in ‘beach like’ conditions.
Autosport
And here’s the story of the morning more generally, where Dani Sordo in the Hyundai took an early lead from Kris Meeke’s Citroen. Paddon impressed too having sat out the last three rounds : 
Tanak is apparently on his way back to the airport, so we're unlikely to see him here again.
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Autosport
It was a dramatic morning - here’s the story of Toyota's dreadful time of it which the team has described as a "disaster". It left Argentina victor Ott Tanak out of contention: 
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Here’s a little reminder of our overall picture after this morning’s running:
Overall classification
1 Sordo 48m02.4s
2 Meeke +4.6s
3 Paddon +4.8s
4 Ogier +7.3s
5 Neuville +9.4s
6 Mikkelsen +10.5s
7 Breen +14.8s
8 Evans +20.3s
9 Suninen +23.0s
10 Ostberg +25.4s
Overall classification
1 Sordo 48m02.4s
2 Meeke +4.6s
3 Paddon +4.8s
4 Ogier +7.3s
5 Neuville +9.4s
6 Mikkelsen +10.5s
7 Breen +14.8s
8 Evans +20.3s
9 Suninen +23.0s
10 Ostberg +25.4s
So again we’ll head north for three stages around Viano de Castelo, near the border with Spain. And later this evening we have two superspecials around Porto’s city streets, similar to that used two years ago.
Good afternoon, welcome back to Autosport Live’s coverage of Rally Portugal, with the three Friday afternoon stages of SS5 through to SS7 over the same three stages as this morning.
Autosport
And here's our report from that first loop. We're taking a breather for a few hours now while the cars are in service, but will be back for more coverage starting at 3:15pm UK time. See you then. 
Autosport
Here's an early bit of reaction to Toyota's dreadful start to Rally Portugal, which the team has described as a "disaster": 
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We've had all leading contenders in now, so here's a quick run down of how things stand:
Leading SS4 times
1 Sordo 19m15.5s
2 Mikkelsen +0.3s
3 Ogier +1.8s
4 Neuville +2.1s
5 Paddon +6.8s
6 Meeke +8.2s
Overall classification
1 Sordo 48m02.4s
2 Meeke +4.6s
3 Paddon +4.8s
4 Ogier +7.3s
5 Neuville +9.4s
6 Mikkelsen +10.5s
7 Breen +14.8s
8 Evans +20.3s
Leading SS4 times
1 Sordo 19m15.5s
2 Mikkelsen +0.3s
3 Ogier +1.8s
4 Neuville +2.1s
5 Paddon +6.8s
6 Meeke +8.2s
Overall classification
1 Sordo 48m02.4s
2 Meeke +4.6s
3 Paddon +4.8s
4 Ogier +7.3s
5 Neuville +9.4s
6 Mikkelsen +10.5s
7 Breen +14.8s
8 Evans +20.3s
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Ott Tänak update - Confirmation that Ott Tänak is retiring from the rally after his cooling system damage on SS2. #WRC
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A couple of Toyota updates in for you now:
Paddon puts in a pretty competitive time and jumps up to fifth in his Hyundai on the stage, giving him third in the overall order.
"It's so churned up in places, it's like the beach," says Breen, who adds he's "a bit sad" about his stage time because he was happier with his rhythm on that test.
Breen comes through the stage end and posts the sixth fastest time. He also occupies that position overall.
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"Not so good in here, I'm not so happy with that time," says Evans. "The feeling was OK. The car was moving around more."
Evans is slowest of all so far now, 15.4s off Sordo's pace on the stage. That drops him to sixth overall so far.
More and more cars losing time now in the final part of this stage. Evans will be next in.
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"I was completely flat out, I just don't have grip," says Lappi, who's slowest of all on the stage in the sole remaining Toyota.
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"Nothing [was wrong] in here, I had intercom [issues] again," confirms Meeke. "My rhythm obviously wasn't as good. That's poor."
Meeke's intercom is loose again, and he loses a heap of time at the end of that stage. He's 8.2s slower than Sordo through there and drops behind the Spaniard overall.
Stopwatch
Can Sordo go quicker? You bet he can. He's 0.3s up on his Hyundai team-mate and takes top spot.
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"The rhythm is getting better and better," says Mikkelsen. "The car is working really nice."
Stopwatch
Mikkelsen goes fastest on the stage now by 1.5s from Ogier.
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"It's really difficult to get the car turning, I'm struggling a bit with this," says Neuville, who had been quicker than championship leader Ogier for the majority of the stage. "It's really difficult to go quicker than Ogier. i try, I try!"
Neuville is also at stage end, and after a short delay we have his time - he's 0.3s slower than Ogier.
It's Sordo who's fastest of all out there right now. He's 3.7s up at the penultimate split.
Ogier's stage time was 19m17.3s.
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"I'm quite happy, at least with my drive - not with the conditions, but that's expected," says Ogier.
Ogier is at the stage end, but we don't have time for him yet.
Meeke's not as quick as he has been so far on his one, but he is still 0.6s up on Ogier at split three.
Neuville is now 2s up at the penultimate split. Seven cars on the road at the moment - that's everyone down to Evans in the running order.
By: Matt Beer
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