City spectacular for Rally de Portugal

Next month’s Vodafone Rally de Portugal, round six of the FIA World Rally Championship, will kick off with a promotional stage through the streets of Porto on 23 May.

The 950-metre long course won’t form part of the competitive route but will instead be used to build interest in the rally, which takes place some 550 kilometres away in Faro in Portugal’s Algarve region from 27-30 May.

Billed as the Porto Roadshow and based around Porto’s City Hall and Aliados Avenue, the event is a joint initiative between the rally organisers and North One Sport, promoter of the WRC.

It gets underway with an autograph session at 1430hrs local time. At 1530hrs, crews will get the chance to practice the stage, which features jumps and chicanes plus donut and drifting areas, before it goes live at 1700hrs.

Portugal’s RTP Channel 1 will broadcast one hour of live coverage from the event.

Close on 20 star drivers from the WRC will be taking part in the event, including championship leader Sebastien Loeb, his Citroen team-mates Dani Soro and Kimi Raikkonen, works Ford drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala and local aces Armindo Araujo and Bernardo Sousa. The five Pirelli Star Drivers will also be in action.