SS20: Drama for Novikov

Evgeny Novikov’s hopes of a maiden podium finish in the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia have suffered a potentially disastrous setback after the Russian reached the end of stage 20 with a throttle cable problem.

Novikov completed the stage in third position overall and must now wait to see if emergency repairs carried out at the stage finish will enable him to reach the next run and complete Vodafone Rally de Portugal in the final podium spot aboard his M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

“It happened after 500 metres but I think we have fixed it,” said Novikov.

There were no such problems for Petter Solberg who has claimed his eighth stage victory on the gravel event in his Ford World Rally Team Fiesta as rain at the start of the stage and during the middle of the run increased the challenge facing crews.

Jari-Matti Latvala, who was second fastest, 8.0s off Solberg’s pace, said: “I just tried to be sensible because there was a little bit of rain in the first couple of kilometres and in the middle of the stage.”

Thierry Neuville was 0.4s slower than Latvala in his Citroen following an impressive run to third. Dani Sordo was fourth quickest with rally leader Mikko Hirvonen fifth fastest in his Citroen. His lead over Mads Ostberg is 1m43.2s.

Patrik Sandell admitted to being careful in a few places at the wheel of his Prodrive MINI John Cooper Works WRC. The Swede was 10th quickest.