One of the stars of this year's Rally New Zealand, Sebastien Ogier, was the fastest driver at the pre-event shakedown for Vodafone Rally de Portugal earlier today, with former World Rally Champion Petter Solberg his closest rival.
The four hour test - a prelude to this weekend's rally - took place on a 5.03km gravel road at Vale de Judeu, 12km from the main Service Park near Faro. The same piece of road was used for Shakedown in 2009. Weather conditions were dry and sunny throughout, with a temperature peaking at 23 degrees Celsius.
"I know Shakedown isn't important to the real rally but it's good for the confidence to be fastest and we have a lot of confidence now," said Ogier. "I found the car very good, like usual, and although we tried a couple of different set-ups we've ended up sticking with our usual one - there's nothing new. The road was slippery and cleaning a lot; more than the proper stages I think. I was 16 seconds faster though on my fourth pass compared to my first - that's more than three seconds per kilometre - so you can see the effect."
Fellow Citroen C4 WRC driver Petter Solberg was closest to Ogier's time, stopping the clock 1.3sec later, while Citroen team leader Sebastien Loeb was third. "It's a challenging stage; maybe the most difficult of the rally!" said Loeb, "The surface is loose and abrasive, just like the actual stages, but the road is very fast and narrow. We tried out a few suspension adjustments but nothing major. Everything was fine."
Vodafone Rally de Portugal gets underway this evening with the head-to-head Super Special stage in the Algarve Stadium. Crews will tackle the all-asphalt track in reverse-seeded order from 1925hrs.
Here are the Shakedown times of the leading WRC drivers:
1. OGIER. Citroen C4 WRC. 3:05.0
2. P. SOLBERG. Citroen C4 WRC. 3:06.3
3. LOEB. Citroen C4 WRC. 3:07.3
4. SORDO. Citroen C4 WRC. 3:07.9
5. HIRVONEN. Ford Focus RS WRC 09. 3:08.0
6. LATVALA. Ford Focus RS WRC 09. 3:08.4
7. H. SOLBERG. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 3:09.2
8. RAIKKONEN. Citroen C4 WRC. 3:10.0
9. VILLAGRA. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 3:11.1
10. WILSON. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 3:12.1
11. Al QASSIMI. Ford Focus RS WRC 09. 3:12.2
12. BLOCK. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 3:15.7
Source: WRC
