Magalhães tops Madeira shakedown

Bruno Magalhães has set the fastest time during shakedown for Rali Vinho Madeira, round eight of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

The Peugeot Sport Portugal driver, who starts the event on the back of claiming his first IRC victory on Sata Rallye Açores last month, covered the 3.33-kilometre stage in a time of 1m52.3s.

Despite his pace through the sun-drenched practice stage, Magalhães said he had spent much of the morning working on developing an optimum set-up for his Peugeot 207 Super 2000.

“We were supposed to test on Monday but the boat with the car was late arriving in Madeira so rather than starting at 8am we did not start until 5pm,” said the 30-year-old. “This morning we could not insert the car into the hairpins then afterwards the rear was sliding a little at the rear but it is all about trying different set-ups today.”

Jan Kopecký was second fastest in his works Škoda Fabia S2000 with defending IRC champion Kris Meeke third in his Peugeot UK 207.

Top 10 shakedown times

1 Bruno Magalhães (Peugeot 207 S2000) 1m52.3s
2 Jan Kopecký (Škoda Fabia S2000) 1m52.4s
3 Kris Meeke (Peugeot 207 S2000) 1m52.6s
4 Juho Hänninen (Škoda Fabia S2000) 1m52.9s
5 Luca Rossetti (Abarth Grande Punto S2000) 1m53.2s
6 Freddy Loix (Škoda Fabia S2000) 1m53.5s
7 Miguel Nunes (Peugeot 207 S2000) 1m56.2s
8 Bernardo Sousa (M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000) 1m56.4s
9 Miguel Campos (M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000) 1m56.5s
10 Vitor Pascoal (Peugeot 207 S2000) 1m56.4s