Photo: Honza Fronek
Spanish rally driver Dani Sordo’s first round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) in five months has got off to a flying start as the Hyundai team’s number three driver capitalized on an excellent starting position to set the fastest time in practice for Rally Portugal.
In his second race, Sordo beat Estonia’s Ota Tanaka by 0.5 seconds, while WRC overall leader Thierry Neuville was 0.9 seconds behind, who unfortunately couldn’t avoid hitting a dog that had run onto the track in the first race. The fourth fastest was Sébastien Ogier, who has won the rally five times so far.
Photo: Honza Fronek
If you look at the results of the first race, in which starting order the athletes will go on the track on Friday, then the fastest were Rovanpera, who complained about problems with the hybrid, Sordo, Takamoto Katsuta and Tanak. Championship leaders Neuville and Evans set the fifth and sixth fastest times respectively.
Photo: Honza Fronek
The fastest in the WRC2 class was Gus Greensmith, who made just one run. He was 0.3 seconds ahead of Louis-Pierre Loubet, while Oliver Solberg was 0.8 seconds slower. Former WRC driver Chris Meeke set the seventh fastest time in just one run. WRC2 overall leader Ioan Rosell, who is an asphalt driver, showed the 12th fastest time.
The start of the rally will be given on Thursday at 21:05 Latvian time. In total, athletes will complete 22 speed stages in four days!
Training results:
Tags: Sordo fastest Portuguese WRC training Neuvilles training starts scare
