Just like yesterday, the car race was quite the rodeo. Racing like a bat out of hell, Nasser Al Attiyah (The Dacia Sandriders) posted the fastest time at the first time check, but a mechanical soon put paid to his ambitions. Sébastien Loeb also came out swinging, but he managed to keep it up all the way to the finish despite the race suspension for safety reasons. The Frenchman opened his account in this race and landed Dacia their second victory, after his Qatari teammate in the prologue. "Le Patron" outpaced the Hiluxes of Henk Lategan (+33″) and Lucas Moraes (+1′23″) to secure his 22nd championship win, Dacia's tenth.
The Brazilian is the new overall leader by 51 seconds over the South African and 2′31″ over João Ferreira, who had started the stage in the lead. Ford M-Sport's Carlos Sainz is fourth at 5′21″ and Loeb moved up to fifth at 11′18″. Following in the footsteps of Lategan and Ferreira, Moraes is the third FIA leader of the bp Ultimate Rally Raid Portugal in as many stages. Toyota still hold the entire top 3 overall.
CHALLENGER/SSV: EKSTRÖM BOUNCES BACK AS PINTO DOUBLES DOWN
Mattias Ekström, on a war footing since exiting the stage yesterday, took no prisoners today. The Swede drove his Can-Am to the apex of the stage ranking, while Gonçalo Guerreiro and his Taurus comfortably defended their overall lead. The pecking order also remained unchanged in SSV, with the championship leader, Alexandre Pinto, extending his hegemony over his teammate Enrico Gaspari.
SCHEDULE:
4:30 pm: final press conference
7 pm: prize-giving
Portugal: UTC+01:00 / Spain: UTC+02:00
Source: W2RC / A.S.O.
Photo: ImagensDesportivas.com
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