Rally Portugal 2012

 Rally Portugal 2012

Racing data
4th of 13 races in the 2012 World Rally Championship
Surname:	Rally Portugal
Date:	March 29–1. April 2012
Begin:	Faro
Exams:	19 tests over 368.43 km
Distance:	1564.26 km
Covering:	gravel
Podium
First:	Mads Østberg Adapta World Rally Team
Second:	Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford World Rally Team
Third:	Petter Solberg Ford World Rally Team

Mads Østberg

The 46th Rally Portugal was held from March 29 to April 1, 2012. A total of 22 special stages were planned. But only 19 special stages could be driven because of heavy rain.

Reports

Day 1 (Thursday, March 29)

The 1st special stage (3.27 kilometers) driven on the streets of Lisbon went to Petter Solberg (Ford). Behind it followed Sebastien Loeb (Citroen), Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) and Mikko Hirvonen (Citroën). In the third special stage, World Champion Loeb flew into the ditch and damaged his car so badly that the rally was over for him. Solberg and Latvala took the lead in the tests, followed by Hirvonen in 3rd place. Dani Sordo (MINI) had to give up in the 2nd special stage because the lighting system had failed. He did not take part in the 3rd special stage, only again on Friday ( Rally 2 regulations ).

Day 2 (Friday, March 30th)

The 5th special stage was marked by heavy rainfall. Latvala slipped off the road and lost a lot of time, while team-mate Solberg took the lead. In the 6th special stage, the same thing happened to Solberg as Latvala had before. Hirvonen took the lead with over 31 seconds ahead of Mads Østberg , followed by Evgeny Novikov . Ford driver Novikov was 20 seconds faster than Østberg in the 7th special stage and was in 2nd place at the end of the day. The special stages 8 to 10 had to be canceled in the afternoon due to heavy rain; the organizer could no longer guarantee safety.

3rd day (Saturday, March 31st)

After the special stages on Saturday nothing had changed in the ranking of the top three. Despite technical problems, Petter Solberg was able to work his way up to 5th place, at this point he was more than 6 minutes behind the leader Mikko Hirvonen .

4th day (Sunday, April 1st)

While went Mikko Hirvonen (Citroën) as the first through the target, but was later disqualified because of a non-compliant turbos and a clutch , which also did not meet the rules. This is how Mads Østberg took her first win in the WRC ahead of Evgeny Novikov and Petter Solberg (all Ford). Dani Sordo (MINI) won the power stage ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala and Ott Tänak (both Ford).

Classifications

Bottom line

rank	driver	Co-driver	automobile	time	Residue	Points + power stage
WRC
01	Mads Østberg	Jonas Andersson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 21: 16.1		25th
02	Evgeny Novikov	Denis Giraudet	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 22: 49.3	01: 33.2	18th
03	Petter Solberg	Chris Patterson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 23: 11.7	01: 55.6	15th
04th	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Giovanni Bernacchini	Citroën DS3 WRC	4: 27: 21.9	06: 05.8	12
05	Martin Prokop	Zdeněk Hrůza	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 27: 25.3	06: 09.2	10
06th	Dennis Kuipers	Robin Buysmans	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 28: 03.4	06: 47.3	8th
07th	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Škoda Fabia S2000	4: 28: 25.1	07: 09.0	6th
08th	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Citroën DS3 WRC	4: 29: 54.0	08: 37.9	4th
09	Jari Ketomaa	Mika Stenberg	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 31: 08.9	09: 52.8	2
10	Peter van Merksteijn, Jr.	Eddy Chevaillier	Citroën DS3 WRC	4: 31: 27.1	10: 11.0	1
11	Dani Sordo	Carlos del Barrio	Mini John Cooper Works WRC	4: 33: 39.8	12: 23.7	3 power stage
13	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 38: 18.7	17: 02.6	2 power stage
14th	Ott Tanak	Kuldar Sikk	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4: 38: 31.2	17: 15.1	1 power stage
SWRC
01 (16)	Hayden Paddon	John Kennard	Škoda Fabia S2000	4: 49: 41.2		25th
02 (17)	Maciej Oleksowicz	Andrzej Obrebowski	Ford Fiesta S2000	4: 54: 43.5	5: 02.3	18th
03 (18)	Pedro Meireles	Mario Castro	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X R4	4: 58: 31.5	8: 50.3	15th
JWRC
01	Alastair Fisher	Daniel Barritt	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 32: 02.9		25 + 3 for SS victories
02	Brendan Reeves	Rhianon Smyth	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 32: 43.2	040.3	18 + 2 for SS victories
03	Pontus Tidemand	Stig rune Skjærmoen	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 34: 08.6	2: 05.7	16 + 1 for SS victories
04th	Timo van der Marel	Erwin Berkhof	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 37: 07.9	5: 05.0	12
05	Jose Antonio Suarez	Candido Carrera	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 39: 37.4	7: 34.5	10
06th	Fredrik Ahlin	Morten Erik Abrahamsen	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 42: 19.6	10: 16.7	8 + 3 for SS victories
07th	Elfyn Evans	Andrew Edwards	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 47: 58.2	15: 55.3	6th
08th	João Silva	José Janela	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 49: 17.7	17: 14.8	4th
09	John MacCrone	Stuart Loudon	Ford Fiesta R2	2: 52: 01.9	19: 59.0	2

• The Junior WRC has completed the first 13 special stages of the rally.

Special stages

Day	WP number	begin	WP name	length	WP winner	time	Ø km / h	leader
Day 1 (March 29)	WP1	15:00	WPS Lisboa	03.27 km	Petter Solberg	02: 57.1	066.47 km / h	Petter Solberg
	WP2	20:19	Gomes Aires	10.19 km	Petter Solberg	06: 38.1	092.15 km / h
	WP3	20:49	Santa Clara	14.29 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	08: 34.4	100.01 km / h	Jari-Matti Latvala
	WP4	21:25	Ourique	11.10 km	Ott Tanak	06: 45.5	098.55 km / h
Day 2 (March 30th)	WP5	12:01 pm	Tavira 1	25.01 km	Dani Sordo	17: 55.3	083.73 km / h	Petter Solberg
	WP6	12:36	Alcarias 1	25.15 km	Dani Sordo	20: 14.7	074.54 km / h	Mikko Hirvonen
	WP7	13:28	S. Brás de Alportel 1	16.18 km	Dani Sordo	13: 11.7	073.57 km / h
	WP8	15:56	Tavira 2	25.01 km	called off
	WP9	16:31	Alcarias 2	025.15 km
	WP10	17:23	S. Brás de Alportel 2	016.18 km
Day 3 (March 31st)	WP11	09:49	Almodovar 1	26.22 km	Dani Sordo	16: 30.8	095.27 km / h
	WP12	10:43	Vascao 1	25.29 km	Petter Solberg	17: 03.5	088.95 km / h
	WP13	11:33	Loulé 1	22.57 km	Petter Solberg	15: 49.7	085.56 km / h
	WP14	14:39	Almodovar 2	26.22 km	Petter Solberg	16: 06.9	097.62 km / h
	WP15	15:33	Vascao 2	25.29 km	Petter Solberg	16: 16.5	093.24 km / h
	WP16	16:23	Loulé 2	22.57 km	Dani Sordo	15: 25.0	087.84 km / h
Day 4 (April 1st)	WP17	07:59	Silves 1	21.42 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	12: 01.2	106.92 km / h
	WP18	08:52	Santana de Serra 1	31.04 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	22: 48.0	081.68 km / h
	WP19	09:42	Sambro 1	5.08 km	Petter Solberg	03: 09.2	096.66 km / h
	WP20	12:23	Silves 2	21.42 km	Petter Solberg	12: 05.2	0106.33 km / h
	WP21	13:16	Santana de Serra 2	31.04 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	22: 54.1	081.32 km / h
	WP22	14:10	Sambro 2 (power stage)	5.08 km	Dani Sordo	03: 10.4	096.05 km / h

Comment: Mikko Hirvonen (Citroën) was disqualified (see reports on day 4).

Web links

• Official site of the WRC

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsport-total.com website: Rally Portugal. Retrieved February 20, 2014 .