After a dramatic 2nd day in the Rally Portugal, which saw the cancellation of the last 3 stages dues to weather problems, and which saw the retirement of a group of leading drivers most notable the factory Ford due, Solberg and Latvala, which will resume today under the super rally rules, Mikko Hirvonen leads the rally by 36 seconds over second place Novikov who impressively stayed out of trouble. Hirvonen a man known to be calm and happy to collect the points waiting for the others to make errors, did it again yesterday and gained a lead that may convert to a win after this long and difficult rally.
Mads Ostberg lies 3rd overall in what has been a very calculated drive, around 5 seconds only away from Novikov. Patrick Sandel drives the Mini impressively to 4th place while Martin Prokop lies 5th overall in his Ford. Nasser Al Attiyah finished day 2 in 6th place after running as high as 4th but Nasser is only 21 seconds away from 5th place and Day 3 may see a charge for a top 5 finish. Peter van Merksteijn Jr, Dennis Kuipers, Sebastien Ogier and Jari Ketomaa continue the top 10 respectively.
Leading positions after SS10:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen 1h20m01.7s
2. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 36.3s
3. Mads Ostberg Adapta Ford + 41.8s
4. Patrik Sandell Prodrive Mini + 3m07.2s
5. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 3m25.8s
6. Nasser Al-Attiyah Qatar Citroen + 3m46.9s
7. Peter van Merksteijn Jr van Merksteijn Citroen + 3m50.8s
8. Dennis Kuipers M-Sport Ford + 4m41.1s
9. Sebastien Ogier VW Skoda + 5m45.1s
10. Jari Ketomaa Autotek Ford + 5m52.3s