Sousa starts first on day two in the Azores

Bernardo Sousa will face the tough task of cleaning the road of the loose surface gravel when Sata Rallye Açores, round seven of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, continues later today.

The 22-year-old from Madeira will be the first of 38 drivers to tackle the opening 7.90-kilometre Batalha Golfe stage in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000.

Sousa completed Thursday’s three stages in fifth overall. With the running order for day two based on the classification prior to the day one-closing superspecial, albeit with the top five places reversed, Sousa will head the field alongside co-driver Nuno Silva.

“It’s going to be impossible,” said Sousa, the current Portuguese championship leader. “For a good result in the IRC now there is no chance. Now I just have to concentrate on the Portuguese championship because the stages will be so slippery for me and I will lose so much time.”

Jan Kopecký will start two minutes behind Sousa in his Škoda Fabia S2000 with Andreas Mikkelsen third in another Fiesta. IRC title leader Juho Hänninen, who holds first place by a slender 0.2s margin, goes fourth with Bruno Magalhães fifth.

Kris Meeke started first on day one but fell to sixth on stage two and crucially avoided finishing the opening leg in fifth position, which would have forced him to run first again. “It’s definitely a better position to be in,” said the Peugeot UK pilot.

Crews are due to enter the service area in Ponta Delgada, which is perched overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, at 09:34hrs local time. The first of nine stages gets underway at 10:03hrs with scattered clouds expected for much of the day.

Top 10 IRC starting positions for day two

1 Bernardo Sousa
2 Jan Kopecký
3 Andreas Mikkelsen
4 Juho Hänninen
5 Bruno Magalhães
6 Kris Meeke
7 Pedro Peres
8 Vítor Pascoal
9 Ricardo Moura
10 Sérgio Silva