Rally de Portugal Day Four

Rally de Portugal Day Four

2012 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
RALLY DE PORTUGAL
(29 MARCH - 01 APRIL 2012

UPDATE

01.04.2012

UPDATE: Following final scrutineering, a report from the FIA Technical Delegate stated that the clutch fitted to Car No. 2 (Hirvonen/Lehtinen) was not in conformity with the Homologation Form A5733. The Stewards therefore excluded Car No. 2 from the event classification.
 
In addition, the turbo (turbine wheel) fitted to Car No. 2 appears not to be in conformity. However, the Stewards suspended a decision on this matter and requested that the FIA Technical Delegate carries out a further examination and reports the outcome to the Stewards for further consideration.
 
The Citroën Total World Rally Team crew of Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen today claimed victory in Rally de Portugal, their first win with the Citroën DS3 WRC. Despite last minute scares both Mads Østberg/Jonas Andersson and Evgeny Novikov/Denis Giraudet finished second and third respectively after a dramatic and incident-filled fourth round of the world series.
 
In the FIA World Rally Championship, Hirvonen’s maximum points for victory see the Finn take the lead in the Championship, nine points ahead of team-mate Sébastien Loeb who retired from Rally de Portugal on Thursday. Petter Solberg eventually managed to climb into fourth in the overall classification and holds third in the Drivers’ Championship. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, Citroën continues to lead Ford.
 
Today’s route took in another two loops of three stages and it was a dramatic day for a number of the crews. Behind Hirvonen, who cruised to the finish with a one minute 51.8 second advantage, Mads Østberg continued to experience engine problems, but it was Novikov who suffered worse with a throttle problem. The Russian nevertheless made it to the finish and the 21-year-old claimed his first-ever WRC podium placing.
 
Solberg’s fourth position came after a troubled event for the Ford team and Nasser Al-Attiyah claimed a last-minute fifth despite dropping time with a puncture. Martin Prokop lost time on the wrong tyres this morning but finished a fine sixth. Behind Dennis Kuipers in seventh, Sébastien Ogier finished eighth and Belgium’s Thierry Neuville claimed ninth after suffering two punctures in one stage. Spaniard Dani Sordo – who finished 12th overall – picked up points for victory in the Power Stage, and Jari-Matti Latvala salvaged two points in the same stage after another disappointing event that saw him finish 14th. Ott Tänak, 15th overall, claimed the final Power Stage point.
 
The fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes the crews to South America for Rally Argentina (26-29 April).
 
Amended Rally de Portugal – Final Results
(Subject to the result of the appeal lodged by Competitor No.2 against Stewards Decision No. 8)

Amended FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 4 of 13 rounds)

Amended FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 4 of 13 rounds)