Algarve base for Rally Portugal 2014

After investigating a move to the north of the country, the organisers of Rally de Portugal have confirmed that the event will run from its current base in the Algarve again next year.

Portugal rejoined the World Rally Championship in 2007 after a six year absence. It has run six times since, on each occasion from a service base at the Algarve Stadium, close to the holiday resort of Faro.

Up to 2001, however, the rally had been based in the north, from Portugal’s second-largest city, Porto.

The only remnant of the previous route in the modern Rally de Portugal is the pre-rally Fafe Rally Sprint, run near Porto on a section of the iconic Fafe-Lameirinha stage.

The Rally Sprint is used by many WRC teams as a last-minute testing opportunity before the rally proper and this year drew a crowd of 100,000 spectators.

Last year the organizing Automobile Club de Portugal began discussions to move the whole rally back to Porto.

But after 12 months of negotiations, the Automobile Club de Portugal announced on Tuesday that it had failed to reach an agreement with the local government in Porto and the event would instead remain in the Algarve in 2014.