Volkswagen French continues to lead the Vodafone Rally de Portugal.
The long and feared streak at Almodôvar, with 52.3 km in length, turned out to be favorable to Sébastien Ogier, who seems to have solved the clutch problems of the Volkswagen Polo R WRC that affected him throughout the morning of this last day of rallies in land, having registered the second time in the qualifying won by Mads Ostberg, who overturned his Ford yesterday.
The Norwegian Ford has already left yesterday's incident behind him and today with nothing to lose, he completed the section in 33m05.2sec, leaving Ogier at 16.8s and Mikko Hirvonen at 28.2s, reinforcing his second place despite the wasted time for Ogier. This is because Jari-Matti Latvala completed the Almodôvar special with rear wheel drive only, finishing 3'03.4s behind Ostberg. It seems that the strategy we put forward for Hirvonen yesterday is not only confirmed, it is taking its dividends.
The Vodafone Rally de Portugal starts its decisive stages in a little while, at 12:31.
