Rally Portugal 2009

 Rally Portugal 2009

Racing data
4th of 12 races of the 2009 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Portugal
Date:	2nd to 5th April 2009
Begin:	Vilamoura
Exams:	18 tests over 341.36 km
Distance:	1164.99 km
Covering:	gravel
Podium
First:	Sébastien Loeb Citroën World Rally Team
Second:	Mikko Hirvonen Ford World Rally Team
Third:	Dani Sordo Citroën World Rally Team

The Rally Portugal was the fourth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship . It took place from April 2nd to 5th.

Race report

After the 18 special stages to be driven, Sébastien Loeb was more than 20 seconds ahead of second Mikko Hirvonen . The Ford driver could not shorten his deficit on Sunday afternoon because Loeb was no longer taking full risk. However, it didn't look like Loeb's winning streak would continue. In the first special stage on Friday morning he made one of his rare mistakes and fell back to seventh place. But the Citroën driver was able to catch up again and finished Friday in third place. On Saturday Loeb set the fastest time in all the special stages, and had already taken the lead on Saturday morning. On Sunday, Loeb was only concerned with managing his lead and getting the car safely to the finish line. With the fourth victory in the fourth round of the World Championship, Loeb was able to extend the lead over Hirvonen to ten points in the overall standings. It was also the record world champion's 51st WRC victory. Jari-Matti Latvala had a serious accident in which the Ford Focus overturned down a slope 17 times. Latvala and co-driver Miikka Anttila were uninjured, but the car could not be repaired. Latvala was at the top of the overall standings at this point. On Saturday morning, Marcus Grönholm ended his comeback in the WRC. After a year and a half break, the double world champion had shown that he did not belong to the «old iron» and was one of the front runners. However, on Saturday morning he was thrown off the road and had to give up the rally.

In the Production Car World Championship (PWRC), local Armindo Araujo won ahead of Martin Prokop , who was just ahead of Eyvind Brynildsen in the spectator test . In the Junior World Championship (JWRC) Hans Weijs jr won. before Michal Kosciuszko and Kevin Abbring .

Classifications

Bottom line

Item	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points
WRC
1	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 53: 13.1		10
2	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 53: 37.4	0: 24.3	8th
3	Dani Sordo	Marc Marti	Citroën C4 WRC	3: 54: 58.5	1: 45.4	6th
4th	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	Citroën Xsara WRC	3: 55: 57.7	2: 44.6	5
5	Henning Solberg	Cato Menkerud	Ford Focus RS WRC	3: 58: 59.4	5: 46.3	4th
6th	Mads Østberg	Ole Kristian Unnerud	Subaru Impreza WRC	3: 59: 33.9	6: 20.8	3
7th	Federico Villagra	Jose Diaz	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 06: 12.6	12: 59.5	2
8th	Khalid Al Qassimi	Michael Orr	Ford Focus RS WRC	4: 11: 24.8	18: 21.7	1
PWRC
1 0(9)	Armindo Araujo	Miguel Ramalho	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 15: 31.6		10
2 (10)	Martin Prokop	Jan Tománek	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 16: 38.7	1: 07.1	8th
3 (11)	Eyvind Brynildsen	Denis Giraudet	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX	4: 16: 44.7	1: 13.1	6th
4 (16)	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Giovanni Bernacchini	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 26: 09.2	10: 37.6	5
5 (28)	Mark Tapper	Jeff Rudd	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	4: 41: 21.2	25: 49.6	4th
6 (31)	Gianluca Linari	Andrea Cecchi	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 43: 39.3	28: 07.7	3
7 (33)	Gaurav Singh Gill	David Sr.	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4: 46: 25.3	30: 53.7	2
8 (38)	Martin Semerád	Bohuslav Ceplecha	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	5: 00: 32.7	45: 01.1	1
JWRC
1 (13)	Michal Kosciuszko	Maciek Szczepaniak	Suzuki Swift S1600	4: 22: 38.6		10
2 (19)	Kevin Abbring	Erwin Mombaerts	Renault Clio R3	4: 28: 45.1	6: 06.5	8th
3 (22)	Hans Weijs jr.	Bjorn Degandt	Citroën C2 S1600	4: 32: 01.3	9: 22.7	6th
4 (24)	Luca Griotti	Corrado Bonato	Renault Clio R3	4: 37: 48.7	15: 10.9	5
5 (34)	Alessandro Bettega	Simone Scattolin	Renault Clio R3	4: 49: 23.1	26: 44.5	4th
6 (39)	Simone Bertolotti	Luca Celestini	Suzuki Swift S1600	5: 04: 38.9	42: 00.3	3

Special stages

Day	WP number	WP name	length	WP winner	time	leader
Day 1 (April 2nd)	WP1	Estadio Algarve 1	2.21 km	Henning Solberg	2: 09.6	Henning Solberg
Day 2 (April 3rd)	WP2	Ourique 1	23.42 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	14: 26.9	Jari-Matti Latvala
	WP3	Silves 1	21.54 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	12: 11.6
	WP4	Malhao 1	22.04 km	Sébastien Loeb	14: 10.8	Daniel Sordo
	WP5	Ourique 2	23.42 km	Mikko Hirvonen	14: 27.3	Mikko Hirvonen
	WP6	Silves 2	21.54 km	Daniel Sordo	12: 09.8
	WP7	Malhao 2	22.04 km	Sébastien Loeb	14: 06.6
Day 3 (April 4th)	WP8	Santa Clara 1	22.61 km	Sébastien Loeb	13: 52.3
	WP9	Almodovar 1	27.18 km	Sébastien Loeb	17: 14.6	Sébastien Loeb
	WP10	Vascao 1	22.8 km	Sébastien Loeb	14: 47.2
	WP11	Santa Clara 2	22.61 km	Sébastien Loeb	13: 50.0
	WP12	Almodovar 2	27.18 km	Sébastien Loeb	17: 20.3
	WP13	Vascao 2	22.8 km	Sébastien Loeb	14: 40.6
Day 4 (April 5th)	WP14	Loule 1	22.65 km	Sébastien Loeb	15: 46.6
	WP15	S. Bras Alportel 1	16.23 km	Sébastien Loeb	11: 40.1
	WP16	Loule 2	22.65 km	Mikko Hirvonen	15: 34.9
	WP17	S. Bras Alportel 2	16.23 km	Mikko Hirvonen	11: 36.0
	WP18	Estadio Algarve 2	2.21 km	Henning Solberg	2: 08.8

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com: Loeb also triumphs on gravel , accessed on December 27, 2014

Web links

Commons : World Rally Championship 2009  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website