Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena have won their fourth consecutive event in the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship. The Citroën Total World Rally Team crew took the lead on Saturday, beating Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen (BP Ford) by 24.3 seconds. Third position was taken by Dani Sordo and Marc Marti (Citroën Total).
In the FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers, Loeb takes maximum points and extends his advantage to 10 points over Hirvonen. Sordo retains third. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, Citroën Total heads BP Ford by 24 points.
Today’s route took in two loops of two identical stages before returning to the Algarve Stadium for the closing super special stage. Despite Loeb running first on the road, the Frenchman won the morning’s two stages as those behind him suffered with lingering dust in the air. Hirvonen won the following two stages but the deficit of 24 seconds going into the final stage was too much to overcome. Behind them, Sordo sensed an engine problem in stage 15, but the Spaniard continued without problems to the finish.
Petter Solberg claimed fourth, the Norwegian reporting better pace after changing the dampers at the mid-day service. Brother Henning was elevated to fifth in the penultimate stage after Matthew Wilson rolled and burned out the clutch trying to re-join the stage. Conrad Rautenbach went off at the same place, and retired from eighth position when the car caught fire. Mads Østberg climbed from eighth to seventh in the first stage, and eventually took sixth following Wilson’s retirement. Federico Villagra and Khalid Al Qassimi rounded off the top eight.
The FIA World Rally Championship crews now head to South America for Rally Argentina (23-26 April).
Rally de Portugal - Final Results (subject to scrutineering)
| 1 |
Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena |
Citroën C4 WRC |
3 hr 53 min 13.1sec |
| 2 |
Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen |
Ford Focus RS WRC |
3 hr 53 min 37.4sec |
| 3 |
Dani Sordo/Marc Marti |
Citroën C4 WRC |
3 hr 54 min 58.5sec |
| 4 |
Petter Solberg/Phil Mills |
Citroën Xsara WRC |
3 hr 55 min 57.7sec |
| 5 |
Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud |
Ford Focus RS WRC |
3 hr 58 min 59.4sec |
| 6 |
Mads Østberg/ Ole Kristian Unnerud |
Subaru Impreza WRC |
3 hr 59 min 33.9sec |
| 7 |
Federico Villagra/Jose Diaz |
Ford Focus RS WRC |
4 hr 06 min 12.6sec |
| 8 |
Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr |
Ford Focus RS WRC |
4 hr 11 min 34.8sec |
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 4 of 12 rounds)
| Sébastien Loeb (F) |
40 points |
| Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) |
30 points |
| Dani Sordo (E) |
23 points |
| Petter Solberg (N) |
14 points |
| Henning Solberg (N) |
14 points |
| Matthew Wilson (GB) |
8 points |
| Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN) |
6 points |
| Chris Atkinson (AUS) |
4 points |
| Federico Villagra (RA) |
4 points |
| Sébastien Ogier (F) |
3 points |
| Conrad Rautenbach (ZW) |
3 points |
| Mads Østberg (N) |
3 points |
| Khalid Al Qassimi (UAE) |
3 points |
| Urmo Aava (EE) |
1 point |
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 4 of 12 rounds)
| Citroën Total World Rally Team |
64 points |
| BP-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team |
40 points |
| Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team |
27 points |
| Citroën Junior Team |
11 points |
| Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team |
7 points |