Photo Credit: Volkswagen Motorsport The World Rally Championship returns next weekend for round 5 of the series, the 2016 Vodafone Rally de Portugal. Based around the country's capital city of Porto, Portugal is one of the most popular events with spectators and drivers alike. One of the favourites for victory, as he always is, is triple World Champion Sebastien Ogier and his Volkswagen Polo R. The Frenchman once again has the arduous task of cleaning the loose gravel for those behind him, but has an impeccable record on this European thriller, having won the event 4 times from 5 attempts in top line machinery. If he wins this year he will draw level with Markku Alen with 5 Portuguese victories. However it was last year when he was beaten to the win, with his road sweeping duties playing a significant part. That's not to take anything away from Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, who drove a superb rally 12 months ago. He is another favourite to do the double in 2016, after his crash in Argentina while leading keeps him down in 6th in the championship and subsequently further down the road order. Andreas Mikkelsen will start days 1 and 2 fourth on the road, so could be an outside bet to take his first ever gravel win in the World Rally Championship. The Norwegian is aiming to take 2nd in the championship come the close of play. Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport / Citroen Racing However taking the battle to the VW's will be 4 Hyundai i20s and 2 Citroen DS3's, plus a whole host of M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS's, with the entry list for this event containing 19 World Rally cars.
Scoring points for the main Hyundai squad will be Dani Sordo and Hayden Paddon, who is on the back of a maiden WRC win. It will be interesting to see how Paddon fares starting just behind Ogier in the running order, while Sordo will be looking to impress a load of his home fans who have come across the border to support him and continue his purple patch of form this season. In the second string team, test and development driver Kevin Abbring has been handed his first outing of 2016 at the wheel of a 2015 spec i20 WRC. He will be joined by Belgian Thierry Neuville, who will be looking to get his season back on track after enduring disappointing rallies in America. The Citroen's are making a welcome return as the WRC heads back to Europe, with Stephane Lefebvre joining lead driver Kris Meeke, who was impressive on his previous runs this season. Khalid Al-Qassimi will also be out in a DS3. The Ford attack is likely to be led by Mads Ostberg, who won this event back in 2012 where conditions were truly dreadful. Across the service park in Fiesta #6, Eric Camilli will be looking to improve on his 8th place from Argentina, while other Fiesta drivers such as Lorenzo Bertelli and Martin Prokop will be out to impress. In 2015 Volkswagen Motorsport took a maximum 122 points, taking a clean sweep of the finishing podium and the top 3 times on the Power Stage. Can they do it again? You'll find out next weekend!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
WRCArticles covering the World Rally Championship Archives
January 2018
Categories |