SS12, Arganil: Close encounters in the fog
Mitusbishi's Tommi Makinen extended his lead over Ford's Carlos Sainz on this morning's second stage of the second leg of the Rally of Portugal, but a car parked in the middle of the road caused a few anxious moments
Ironically, the car was identified as a Mitsubishi Pajero by both Carlos Sainz and Richard Burns's co-driver Robert Reid, which showed just how close they came to hitting it, as visibility is down to 20 metres due to fog.
"For this kind of thing to be allowed to happen is just not acceptable," said Reid of the rogue vehicle.
Makinen completed the 14.27km stage in a time 8.3secs quicker than Sainz. The Spaniard was two-tenths faster through the stage than Burns, who is now just 23.5secs behind fourth placed Marcus Gronholm's Peugeot, who was fourth quickest on the test.
Third placed Harri Rovanpera (Peugeot) lost over 40secs on the stage, dropping him well away from the leading battle. He is now 49secs ahead of team mate Gronholm.
Tommi Makinen Mitsubishi,, 11m13.2s
Carlos Sainz,Ford, 11m21.5s
Richard Burns, Subaru, 11m21.7s
, Marcos Gronholm, Peugeot 11m25.8s
Francois Delecour, Ford, 11m31.0s
, Freddy Loix, Mitsubishi, 11m33.8s
Tommi Makinen, Mitsubishi, 1h57m02.3s
Carlos Sainz, Ford, +27.2s
Harri Rovanpera, Peugeot, +1m19.2s
Marcus Gronholm, Peugeot, +2m08.3s
Richard Burns, Subaru, +2m31.8s
Freddy Loix, Mitsubishi, +3m55.6s
Francois Delecour, Ford, +4m53.7s
Markko Martin, Subaru, +6m39.9s
Alister McRae, Hyundai, +7m39.6s
Kenneth Eriksson, Hyundai, +8m18.4s
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