The Citroën Junior Team’s Sébastien Ogier kept the factory C4 drivers Dani Sordo and Sébastien Loeb at arm’s length on day one of WRC Rally Portugal.
Having impressed in Thursday’s shakedown, the Frenchman won five of the six Friday stages to end the day 26.6 seconds ahead of Spaniard Sordo, with his countryman and six-time WRC drivers’ champion Loeb a further 18.2 seconds adrift.
“Everything was OK today, almost perfect,” said Ogier. “I tried to push hard, but tried to think a bit about the tyres.
'We are going to be first on the road tomorrow and I know that will be quite difficult' – Sébastien Ogier
“I am happy with the gap and it would have been difficult to make it more. Now we are going to be first on the road tomorrow and I know that will be quite difficult.”
That gap could well have been less if Sordo hadn’t experienced throttle problems in his own Citroën that cost him more than 15 seconds in lost time.
“Towards the end, I lifted the throttle and tried to brake, but the car continued to go in a little bit, so I don’t know exactly what happened,” Sordo commented. “But my day wasn’t too bad, so I’ll try to continue like that tomorrow.”
Loeb, meanwhile, jumped from fifth to third at the end of the day, but his 44.8 seconds of deficit was largely down to the world champion having to sweep the gravel roads for his rivals.
“I lost the same time in the afternoon as in the morning – I lost 23 [seconds] in the morning and we are 45 [seconds] now,” said Loeb. “I tried to push hard, but it’s not easy.”
Citroën Sport Photos
Kimi Räikkönen decided to play it safe on another new rally for the Finn, especialy with a month’s hiatus since his last drive, so the former F1 champion was satisfied enough to finish day one in the 10th and final points-paying position.
"From the beginning, my idea was to get to the finish of today without any problems," Räikkönen said. "It's still very tough for me as I'm just starting out in rallying, so it's important to be sure of getting plenty of kilometres.
“Probably the most difficult thing about today is that the grip has been changing a lot, and so it helped when we were able to do the stages again in the afternoon. It was basically OK for the first day, but I still need to get some more speed. I didn't have so much confidence in the morning, but it was definitely better in the afternoon."
Keep abreast of developments during the rally on our WRC Portugal events page
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