French driver Sébastien Ogier continued his fine recent form, clocking the best time in the Rally de Portugal shakedown – the warm-up race before the serious business of the sixth World Rally Championship.
Ogier, one of our Ones to Watch, finished second in the previous rally in New Zealand – his best WRC finish to date – and looks in fine fettle once again.
The four-hour test took place on a 5.03km gravel road at Vale de Judeu, near Faro, in dry, sunny conditions, with Ogier stopping the clock at 3min 5sec exactly.
"I found the car very good, like usual, and, although we tried a couple of different set-ups, we've ended up sticking with our usual one – there's nothing new," he said.
'It’s good for confidence to be fastest and we have a lot of confidence' – Seb
“The road was slippery and cleaning a lot – more than the proper stages I think. I was 16 seconds faster though on my fourth pass compared to my first – that's more than three seconds per kilometre so you can see the effect."
Fellow Citroen C4 driver Petter Solberg was closest to Ogier's time, stopping the clock 1.3sec later, while Citroen team leader Sébastien Loeb was third.
"It's a challenging stage – maybe the most difficult of the rally!" said Loeb. "The surface is loose and abrasive, just like the actual stages, but the road is very fast and narrow. We tried out a few suspension adjustments but nothing major. Everything was fine."
For all the latest from the race proper which begins on Friday, visit wrc.com
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