SS21: MINI drivers in trouble

The drama continues on Vodafone Rally de Portugal with MINI John Cooper Works WRC drivers Armindo Araujo, Patrik Sandell and Dani Sordo hitting trouble during the rain-hit penultimate stage.

Araujo and Sordo both managed to complete the stage following delays but Patrik Sandell has retired following reports that he has gone off the road in his Sweden World Rally Team-backed MINI.

“I had a spin at a junction and hit a small bank,” said Sordo. “I got a puncture after this and had to stop and change the rear left wheel.”

Araujo said: “I had a puncture on the front and had to stop and change the wheel.”

Jari-Matti Latvala, running at the head of the field, was fastest through the stage in his factory Ford Fiesta RS WRC, more than 20 seconds up on team-mate Petter Solberg.

“In some places, it was a bit slippery especially at the beginning,” said Latvala. “I tried to save the tyres for the Power Stage. There were some showers but short, mainly at the end of the stage.”

Solberg said: “It was very heavy rain and the stage is muddy and slippery. I drove the whole stage very cautiously.”

Thierry Neuville completed the stage with a front-right puncture to move ahead of Peter van Merksteijn Jr in the overall classification. However, there are reports that the Belgian has stopped on the subsequent road section with transmission failure on his Citroen Junior World Rally Team entry.

Nasser Al-Attiyah, who started the stage in a career-best fifth, drove the last 10 kilometres of the run with a puncture on his Qatar World Rally Team Citroen. As a result he has slipped to sixth behind Martin Prokop.

Evgeny Novikov has completed the stage after making emergency repairs to a throttle problem on the previous run.

Mikko Hirvonen was sixth fastest and will take a lead of almost two minutes over Mads Ostberg heading into the rally-closing Power Stage.