Junior WRC Day 2 wrap: Victory for Tidemand

Sweden’s Pontus Tidemand won the opening round of the 2013 FIA Junior WRC Championship at Rally de Portugal today in a Ford Fiesta R2.

He took the lead on yesterday’s second stage and never looked back, clocking five stage wins as he came home 2min 26.9sec ahead of Spain’s Jose Suarez.

“It was a very rough and tough rally but I’m really glad we scooped our first victory in the Junior WRC,” said Tidemand. “I’m really happy with the result considering that the competition is really high this year. We’ll now focus on preparing for the Acropolis Rally and we hope to get an equally good result there.”

Suarez won two stages, but lost 1min 40sec with a puncture on the final stage.

Canary Islander Yeray Lemes took the last podium place, showing strong speed today to make up time lost on the first stage after a rear right puncture. He climbed from eighth to third and won two stages in the process.

Finland’s Andreas Amberg was fourth after a consistent performance on only his second WRC event. With only two new tyres left for this afternoon’s loop, he nursed his Fiesta R2 to the finish.

Martin Koci was fifth, ahead of Norwegian Marius Aasen, who was the early leader before suffering brake problems throughout the opening day. He damaged the rear axle of his Fiesta R2 this morning, but made it back to the Faro finish.

Turkish driver Murat Bostanci retired on SS7 after hitting a wall and rolling, while Michel Burri went off in the same stage and was unable to continue.