Rally Portugal 2007

 Rally Portugal 2007

Racing data
5th of 16 rounds of the 2007 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Portugal
Date:	March 29–1. April 2007
Begin:	Faro
Exams:	18 tests over 357.1 km
Distance:	1009.31 km
Covering:	gravel
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total World Rally Team
Second:	Petter Solberg Subaru World Rally Team
Third:	Dani Sordo Citroën Total World Rally Team

Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena in the Citroën C4 WRC at the Rally Portugal 2007

The 41st Rally Portugal was the fifth of 16 FIA World Championship races in 2007. The rally consisted of 18 special stages and was held between March 29 and April 1.

Race report

At the beginning of the Rally Portugal , Ford works driver Marcus Grönholm had taken the lead, but in the last stage on Friday Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) took the lead with a margin of just over three seconds. Saturday brought the preliminary decision, Loeb had made the better choice of tires. He was able to extend the lead to over 40 seconds by the evening.

All Ford drivers who were equipped by M-Sport , including the works drivers, received a five-minute penalty on Sunday evening after the rally for rear windows that were 0.5 millimeters too thin. According to the homologation, 3.5 millimeters were required, but the Ford side windows were only 3 millimeters thick. The Stewarts admitted that the cars had no advantage, but pointed out that there was still a rule violation. Ford had measured the windows incorrectly before fitting. The team accepted the sentence and did not appeal the decision.

This not only postponed the overall ranking of the rally, but also the world championship rankings. Subaru driver Petter Solberg and Loeb's team-mate Dani Sordo moved up to the podium positions behind winner Loeb, while Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen slipped to fourth and fifth. Loeb led the drivers' world championship with 38, ahead of Grönholm with 37 and Hirvonen with 30 points. Ford continued to lead in the Manufacturers' World Championship ahead of Citroën with 67 to 59 points.

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 53: 33.1		10
2	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 56: 47.0	3: 13.9	8th
3	Daniel Sordo	Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 58: 38.4	5: 05.3	6th
4th	Marcus Grönholm	Timo Rautiainen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 59: 10.2	5: 37.1	5
5	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 00: 41.2	7: 08.1	4th
6th	Daniel Carlsson	Denis Giraudet	Citroën Xsara WRC	4: 01: 46.3	8: 13.2	3
7th	Gigi Galli	Giovanni Bernacchni	Citroën Xsara WRC	4: 03: 12.7	9: 39.6	2
8th	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 04: 18.0	10: 44.9	1
JWRC
1 (14)	Per-Gunnar Andersson	Jonas Andersson	Suzuki Swift S1600	4: 22: 43.4	29: 10.3	10
2 (15)	Urmo Aava	Kuldar Sikk	Suzuki Swift S1600	4: 22: 47.1	29: 14.0	8th
3 (18)	Jozef Béreš jun.	Petr Starý	Renault Clio S1600	4: 30: 32.3	36: 59.2	6th
4 (21)	Jaan Mölder Jr.	Katrin Becker	Suzuki Swift S1600	41: 06.8	11: 56.5	5
5 (22)	Andrea Cortinovis	Flavio Zanella	Renault Clio S1600	4: 37.37.2	44: 04.1	4th
6 (26)	Manuel Rueda Sánchez	Borja Rozada	Renault Clio R3	4: 43: 38.1	50: 05.0	3
7 (30)	Shaun Gallagher	Clive Jenkins	Citroën C2 S1600	4: 49: 23.3	55: 50.2	2
8 (32)	Vilius Rožukas	Audrius Šošas	Suzuki Swift S1600	4: 55: 58.3	1: 02: 25.2	1

Special stages

Day	WP number	Start CET	WP name	length	driver	automobile	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 March 29th	WP1	17:35	Estadio Algarve 1	2.20 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	2: 05.8	62.96 km / h	Marcus Grönholm
Day 2 March 30th	WP2	10:27	Tavira 1	19.92 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	14: 07.5	84.62 km / h
	WP3	11:27	Serra de Tavira 1	24.37 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	16: 30.1	88.61 km / h
	WP4	12:15	S. Bras de Alportel 1	16.70 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	11: 24.3	87.86 km / h
	WP5	14:44	Tavira 2	19.92 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	13: 52.3	86.16 km / h
	WP6	15:44	Serra de Tavira 2	24.37 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	16: 10.2	90.43 km / h
	WP7	16:32	S. Bras de Alportel 2	16.70 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	11: 10.6	89.65 km / h	Sébastien Loeb
Day 2 March 31st	WP8	09:48	Silves / Ourique 1	30.69 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	21: 36.5	85.22 km / h
	WP9	10:37	Ourique 1	24.87 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	14: 59.9	99.49 km / h
	WP10	11:32	Almodóvar 1	20.88 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	11: 40.5	107.31 km / h
	WP11	14:50	Silves / Ourique 2	30.69 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	20: 16.0	90.86 km / h
	WP12	15:39	Ourique 2	24.87 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	14: 35.0	102.32 km / h
	WP13	16:34	Almodóvar 2	20.88 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	11: 38.6	107.6 km / h
Day 3 April 1st	WP14	08:07	Loule / Almodóvar 1	17.60 km	Mikko Hirvonen	Ford Focus RS WRC	11: 18.0	93.45 km / h
	WP15	08:39	Loule 1	22.70 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	14: 09.3	96.22 km / h
	WP16	11:42	Loule / Almodóvar 2	17.60 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	11: 11.1	94.41 km / h
	WP17	12:14	Loule 2	22.70 km	Marcus Grönholm	Ford Focus RS WRC	14: 02.0	97.05 km / h
	WP18	14:00	Estadio Algarve 2	2.20 km	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC	2: 06.8	62.46 km / h

Source:

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Five penalty minutes for all M-Sport Fords! , accessed December 24, 2015
2. ↑ ewrc-results.com: 41st Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2007 , accessed December 24, 2015

Web links

Commons : World Rally Championship 2007  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website