Peugeot Italy driver Luca Rossetti leads after the opening day of the Rally de Portugal, following an intense battle in which the lead changed at the end of every one of today's seven stages.
Local hero Bruno Magalhaes was also in contention for the lead until he had a high-speed roll in the morning, from which his Peugeot emerged relatively undamaged. In the afternoon, the lead oscillated between Rossetti and Peugeot Belgium driver Nicolas Vouilloz, with the Italian claiming the overnight advantage by just 2.4 seconds.
Francois Duval climbed up to third in his privately-run Abarth Grande Punto, despite the disadvantage of running first on the road and sweeping the surfaces clean for everybody else behind him. He was just ahead of Czech driver Jan Kopecky in a Peugeot and 1994 World Rally Champion Didier Auriol, making his debut on the IRC with a Grande Punto. Auriol had been feeling unwell at the rally start yesterday, but showed his star quality on the stages today.
The tight and twisty gravel stages of Portugal are well-known as a classically technical challenge, and they were made even harder in the afternoon by the arrival of a few drops of rain. With the pace at the front so hectic, it was inevitable that there would be a number of high-profile victims.
The first major retirement was Anton Alen, who went out with a clutch failure on his Abarth Grande Punto just five kilometres into the opening stage. His teammate Giandomenico Basso was also unlucky: he ends day one in the top 10, but had to stop on one of the stages in the afternoon in order to clean a mixture of sand and condensation off the inside of his windscreen.
Other retirements included Freddy Loix, who ran out of spare wheels on his Peugeot after encountering a series of punctures on the second run through the stages in the afternoon. Manfred Stohl (Peugeot) was also the victim of a puncture, which may have been caused by a broken wheel, while Dani Sola (Abarth) had an intermittent engine misfire.
Rossetti, who faces another six special stages before the finish tomorrow afternoon at 18:10 (local time), commented: "I'm going to be first on the road tomorrow, so I'm hoping for rain as that will minimise the disadvantage. But even if it doesn't rain, I'm happy enough as it means I can follow the tracks of Marcus Gronholm in the zero car – and it doesn't happen every day that you have a two-time World Champion showing you the way..."
The IRC 2WD Cup is currently led by Marco Cavigioli in a Fiat Grande Punto diesel, who is lying 20th overall. The Italian said: "This is just an interim car for me as I will have a new car for the next round in Ypres, but it is interesting to drive and very definitely a good experience for me."
Results after SS7, Rally Portugal:
1 Rossetti/Chiarcossi Peugeot 207 S2000 1h26m06.5s 2 Vouilloz/Klinger Peugeot 207 S2000 +2.4s 3 Duval/Pivato Abarth Grande Punto +15.7s 4 Kopecky/Stary Peugeot 207 S2000 +39.4s 5 Auriol/Giraudet Abarth Grande Punto +1m02.8s 6 Tirabassi/Gordon Peugeot 207 S2000 +1m11.6s 7 Hanninen/Markkula Mitsubishi Lancer Gp.N +1m53.0s 8 Magalhaes/Castro Peugeot 207 S2000 +3m16.4s 9 Basso/Dotta Abarth Grande Punto +3m23.5s 10 Campos/Babo Peugeot 207 S2000 +3m26.2s (...)
