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Portugal debrief: Part 1

In the opening part of our look back at an exciting Vodafone Rally de Portugal, we name our top driver and focus on the key special stage of the WRC's sixth round.

Driver of the Rally
The logical choice would have been rally winner Sébastien Ogier. He delivered an outstanding performance in minimising his time loss when opening the roads on Friday, remaining close to the front and ready to pounce when leader Ott Tänak lost time.
But for sheer perseverance in the face of adversity, we're giving it to Jari-Matti Latvala. The Finn led for a couple of stages on Friday before rolling, but worse was to follow as a severe stomach upset left him on the point of exhaustion.

Simply surviving Saturday's stages was an achievement, and Latvala was so dehydrated that he spent the night in hospital before returning to the seat of his Toyota Yaris for Sunday's finale. His reward was two drivers' points - who knows how vital they might be at the end of the year?

Surprise of the Rally
The glorious unpredictability of the 2017 WRC was aired once more. Seven drivers led the rally at some point. Thierry Neuville, Mads Østberg, Hayden Paddon, Latvala, Kris Meeke and Tanak topped the standings before Ogier snatched a lead he wasn't to lose. Things were so close initially that there were six different leaders in the opening six stages!

Stage of the Weekend
No doubts about this one. Friday's second pass through Ponte de Lima, near the Spanish border, was a brute.
Latvala rolled and Neuville was delayed in his dust, Meeke retired with a broken damper, Citroën team-mate Craig Breen suffered a similar issue but survived and Paddon dropped 11 minutes with the recurrence of an electrical problem.

Amid the carnage as the leaderboard turned upside down, Dani Sordo leapt from seventh to second and Ogier from sixth to third.

One to Forget
If Paddon and Meeke sat down together to outline their recent misfortunes, the conversation would continue for some considerable time.

Paddon's run of bad luck continued. But at least the Kiwi could raise a smile at the finish after being in the thick of the lead battle during the opening leg and winning four stages in between his mechanical issues.

Meeke was right in that fight too. He won a stage on Friday morning and was just 6.2sec off the lead before it all went wrong in the afternoon. The Northern Irishman hit a concrete block which damaged his C3's suspension and that was it for the day.
Rally 2 penalties meant 18th place was the best he could muster - not what he or Citroën needed after his disaster in Argentina last month.

Zdroj: wrc.com