Oliveira out to get the most from Portuguese shakedown

Daniel Oliveira plans to use today’s shakedown for Vodafone Rally de Portugal to continue adapting to his MINI John Cooper Works Super 2000 that he will use in competition for the first time on the world championship event this week.

The 25-year-old sampled his Brazil World Rally Team-run MINI on gravel during a short test on Monday. He now plans to make the most of the shakedown session at Vale de Judeu, which gets underway at 1430hrs local time, to increase his knowledge of the car over the 5.03-kilometre gravel course.

Following his test on Monday, the Brazilian rookie said: “Although it was a short test session it was good enough to get [to grips] with the car’s [handling], so I’m really happy since the general performance was okay. The car felt agile and [easy to drive]. We will take advantage of the shakedown to get more knowledge of the car and to make more progress before the rally kicks off. Our plan is to make a faultless and smooth run.”

Oliveira’s test on Monday took place across the border in Spain, 40 kilometres from the rally base in Faro. Co-driven by Portuguese Carlos Magalhaes, Oliveira completed a number of runs at the wheel of his Prodrive-prepared car.

Following the test Oliveira returned to Portugal on Monday evening to begin his preparations for the event reconnaissance, which is due to finish shortly after midday today (Wednesday). However, it won’t be the first time that Oliveira and Magalhaes have completed a WRC event recce together after they took part in the pre-Rally Guanajuato Mexico session earlier this month.

He added: “Competing in the WRC is something different. This is an amazing project and I’m really grateful for the chance I was handed. The Brazil World Rally Team is about to take its first step and we want to perform well in our first outing.”