MINI drivers restart on final day

WRC Team MINI Portugal drivers Armindo Araujo and Paulo Nobre will both be back in action on the final day of the Acropolis Rally, round six of the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia.

Nobre, from Brazil, stopped on Saturday’s first test when an impact 6.7 kilometres into the stage broke his MINI John Cooper Works WRC’s broken compression strut and the car’s front-left wheel became detached shortly afterwards.

Araujo, meanwhile, was just outside of the top 10 on stage 14 when he damaged a compression strut. Although he made it to the end of the run, the front-right wheel failed on the next test, stage 15, and he was forced to stop. Araujo and Nobre will restart under Rally 2 regulations.

“We all knew [Saturday] was going to be a tough day but it ended up being eventful from start to finish and the mechanics [have] had a lot of work to do to make sure both MINIs [will] be on top form and back for more action,” said WRC Team MINI Portugal team manager Bruno De Pianto. “To focus on the positive, the damage is limited and the only thing to do now is put [Saturday] behind us and look forward to a fresh start in the morning.”

Nobre will run at the head of the field on the final day of the event with Daniel Oliveira second in his Brazil World Rally Team Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Evgeny Novikov goes third in his M-Sport Fiesta with Araujo fourth and Ott Tanak fifth. Nasser Al-Attiyah will run sixth on the road for the Qatar World Rally Team following his restart under Rally 2 rules.