SS8, Amarante: Rovanpera takes first stage win
Swedish Really winner Harri Rovanpera has set the fastest stage time on SS8 of the Portuguese Rally, as the cars are continuing to struggle with atrociously muddy conditions
Rovanpera was 6.7s faster than the second-placed Marcus Gronholm, and has closed to within five seconds of the overall leader Tommi Makinen. Carlos Sainz finished third and maintains his third place overall.
Subaru's Richard Burns finished three seconds behind the four time world champ Makinen and stayed fifth overall ahead of Makinen's Mitsubishi team mate Freddy Loix, who could only manage a lowly ninth on the 18.44km-test.
After special stages six and seven were cancelled earlier today (Friday), SS8 Amarante was completed without problems, albeit more than one hour behind schedule.
The only casualty of the day's seventh stage was the Subaru of Petter Solberg which stopped at the side of the road with terminal suspension problems.
The cars now head to the penultimate stage of the day for SS9, Mondim de Basto.
Harri Rovanpera, Peugeot, 14m19.9s
Marcus Gronholm, Peugeot, 14m26.6s
Carlos Sainz, Ford, 14m28.4s
Tommi Makinen, Mitsubishi, 14m37.1s
Richard Burns, Subaru, 14m40.2s
Francois Delecour, Ford, 14m44.5s
Tommi Makinen, Mitsubishi, 1h06m21.2s
Harri Rovanpera, Peugeot, +5.1s
Carlos Sainz, Ford, +29.6s
Marcus Gronholm, Peugeot, +1m07.4s
Richard Burns, Subaru, +2m01.9s
Freddy Loix, Mitsubishi, +2m37.6s
Francois Delecour, Ford, +2m58.5s
Markko Martin, Subaru, +4m08.2s
Kenneth Eriksson, Hyundai, +4m08.6s
Alister McRae, Hyundai, +5m06.4s
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