Safety comes first in Portugal

Vodafone Rally de Portugal organisers have explained the reasons behind their decision to cancel Friday’s three closing stages.

Heavy rain, fog and mud have been a constant concern throughout day two of the fourth round of the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia with several competitors retiring or suffering significant delay after being caught out by the treacherous conditions.

At the mid-afternoon service halt in Faro today the decision was taken to cancel stage 10 due to an access road getting washed away earlier in the day when a small stream swelled and burst its banks.

With heavy rain leaving stages eight and nine coated in mud and with more rain and fog a possibility, the decision was taken to cancel those two runs as well, resulting in the loss of all of Friday afternoon’s competitive action.

The event will now resume with the 11th stage, Almodovar, at 09:49hrs local time on Saturday.