2012 Rally de Portugal explained

2012 Rally Portugal
Native Name:	46º Rally de Portugal
Round:	4
Championship:	2012 World Rally Championship season
Previous Round:	2012 Rally México
Next Round:	2012 Rally Argentina
Country:	Portugal
Rallybase:	Faro, Portugal
Startdate:	29 March
Enddate:	1 April 2012
Stages:	22
Stagekm:	434.77
Surface:	Gravel
Teamsstart:	49
Teamsfinish:	30

The 2012 Rally de Portugal was the fourth round of the 2012 World Rally Championship season and was based in Faro, Portugal. It started with a street stage in Lisbon on 29 March and concluded on 1 April after twenty-two special stages, totalling 434 competitive kilometres.

Report

Before the rally

The rally was preceded by the "Fafe Rally Sprint", a single-stage exhibition event run over the famous Fafe stages in the country's north which was won by Ford World Rally Team driver Petter Solberg.^[1] Solberg's team-mate, Jari-Matti Latvala won the rally's qualifying stage on the Wednesday before the start of the rally.^[2] Latvala elected to run seventeenth on the road as a result; by contrast, Citroën Total World Rally Team drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Sébastien Loeb elected to run first and second respectively.^[3]

Results

Event standings

Pos.	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time	Difference	Points
Overall<							--
DSQ	Mikko Hirvonen	Jarmo Lehtinen	Citroën DS3 WRC	4:19:24.3	0.0	25-->
1.	Mads Østberg	Jonas Andersson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4:21:16.1	0.0	25
2.	Evgeny Novikov	Denis Giraudet	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4:22:49.3	1:33.2	18
3.	Petter Solberg	Chris Patterson	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4:23:11.7	1:55.6	15
4.	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Giovanni Bernacchini	Citroën DS3 WRC	4:27:21.9	6:05.8	12
5.	Martin Prokop	Zdeněk Hrůza	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4:27:25.3	6:09.2	10
6.	Dennis Kuipers	Robin Buysmans	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4:28:03.4	6:47.3	8
7.	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Škoda Fabia S2000	4:28:25.1	7:09.0	6
8.	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Citroën DS3 WRC	4:29:54.0	8:37.9	4
9.	Jari Ketomaa	Mika Stenberg	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4:31:08.9	9:52.8	2
10.	Peter van Merksteijn Jr.	Eddy Chevaillier	Citroën DS3 WRC	4:31:27.1	10:11.0	1
11.	Dani Sordo	Carlos del Barrio	Mini John Cooper Works WRC	4:33:39.8	12:23.7
13.	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4:38:18.7	17:02.6
14.	Ott Tänak	Kuldar Sikk	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	4:38:31.2	17:15.1
SWRC
1. (16.)	Hayden Paddon	John Kennard	Škoda Fabia S2000	4:49:41.2	0.0	25
2. (17.)		Andrzej Obrebowski	Ford Fiesta S2000	4:54:43.5	5:02.3	18
3. (18.)		Mário Castro	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X R4	4:58:31.5	8:50.3	15
WRC Academy
1.	Alastair Fisher	Daniel Barritt	Ford Fiesta R2	2:32:02.9	0.0
2.	Brendan Reeves	Rhianon Smyth	Ford Fiesta R2	2:32:43.2	40.3
3.	Pontus Tidemand	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	Ford Fiesta R2	2:34:08.6	2:05.7
4.	Timo van der Marel	Erwin Berkhof	Ford Fiesta R2	2:37:07.9	5:05.0	12
5.	Jose Antonio Suarez	Candido Carrera	Ford Fiesta R2	2:39:37.4	7:34.5	10
6.	Fredrik Ahlin	Morten Erik Abrahamsen	Ford Fiesta R2	2:42:19.6	10:16.7
7.	Elfyn Evans	Andrew Edwards	Ford Fiesta R2	2:47:58.2	15:55.3	6
8.	João Silva	José Janela	Ford Fiesta R2	2:49:17.7	17:14.8	4
9.	John MacCrone	Stuart Loudon	Ford Fiesta R2	2:52:01.9	19:59.0	2

– The WRC Academy features only the first 13 stages of the rally.

Special stages

Day	Stage	Time (UTC+1)	Name	Length	Winner	Time	Avg. spd.	Rally leader
Leg 1 (29 Mar)	SS1	15:00	SSS Lisboa	3.27 km	Petter Solberg	2:57.1	66.47 km/h	align=left rowspan=2	Petter Solberg
	SS2	20:19	Gomes Aires	10.19 km	Petter Solberg	6:38.1	92.15 km/h
	SS3	20:49	Santa Clara	14.29 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	8:34.4	100.01 km/h	align=left rowspan=2	Jari-Matti Latvala
	SS4	21:25	Ourique	11.10 km	Ott Tänak	6:45.5	98.55 km/h
Leg 2 (30 Mar)	SS5	12:01	Tavira 1	25.01 km	Dani Sordo	17:55.3	83.73 km/h	Petter Solberg
	SS6	12:36	Alcarias 1	25.15 km	Dani Sordo	20:14.7	74.54 km/h	align=left rowspan=17	Mikko Hirvonen
	SS7	13:28	S. Brás de Alportel 1	16.18 km	Dani Sordo	13:11.7	73.57 km/h
	SS8	15:56	Tavira 2	25.01 km	align=center colspan=3 rowspan=3	stages cancelled due to poor weather^[4]
	SS9	16:31	Alcarias 2	25.15 km
	SS10	17:23	S. Brás de Alportel 2	16.18 km
Leg 3 (31 Mar)	SS11	09:49	Almodovar 1	26.22 km	Dani Sordo	16:30.8	95.27 km/h
	SS12	10:43	Vascao 1	25.29 km	Petter Solberg	17:03.5	88.95 km/h
	SS13	11:33	Loulé 1	22.57 km	Petter Solberg	15:49.7	85.56 km/h
	SS14	14:39	Almodovar 2	26.22 km	Petter Solberg	16:06.9	97.62 km/h
	SS15	15:33	Vascao 2	25.29 km	Petter Solberg	16:16.5	93.24 km/h
	SS16	16:23	Loulé 2	22.57 km	Dani Sordo	15:25.0	87.84 km/h
Leg 4 (1 Apr)	SS17	07:59	Silves 1	21.42 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	12:01.2	106.92 km/h
	SS18	08:52	Santana de Serra 1	31.04 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	22:48.0	81.68 km/h
	SS19	09:42	Sambro 1	5.08 km	Petter Solberg	3:09.2	96.66 km/h
	SS20	12:23	Silves 2	21.42 km	Petter Solberg	12:05.2	106.33 km/h
	SS21	13:16	Santana de Serra 2	31.04 km	Jari-Matti Latvala	22:54.1	81.32 km/h
	SS22	14:10	Sambro 2 (Power stage)	5.08 km	Dani Sordo	3:10.4	96.05 km/h

Notes:

• — Mikko Hirvonen won the rally, but was excluded when event scrutineers found that parts in his Citroën DS3 WRC did not match the parts listed by his team. Hirvonen's exclusion mean that Adapta World Rally Team driver Mads Østberg was declared the winner

Power Stage

The "Power stage" was a 5.08km (03.16miles) stage at the end of the rally.^[5]

Pos	Driver	Time	Diff.	Avg. speed	Points
1	Dani Sordo	3:10.473	0.000	96.1 km/h	3
2		3:10.747	+0.274	95.9 km/h	2
3		3:12.569	+2.096	95.0 km/h	1

Championship standings after the event

Drivers' championship

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1

Pos Driver MON SWE MEX POR ARG GRE NZL FIN GER GBR FRA ITA ESP  Pts  1 Sébastien Loeb 1 ^1 6 ^1 1 ^2 Ret 66 2 Petter Solberg 3 4 ^2 3 ^1 3 62 3 Mads Østberg 3 4 ^3 1 53 4 Mikko Hirvonen 4 ^2 2 2 DSQ 50 5 Evgeny Novikov 5 ^3 5 Ret 2 39 6 Jari-Matti Latvala Ret 1 ^3 Ret 13 ^2 28 7 Dani Sordo 2 Ret 11 ^1 21 8 Nasser Al-Attiyah 21 6 4 20 9 Ott Tänak 8 Ret 5 14 ^3 15 10 Martin Prokop 9 9 5 14 11 Sébastien Ogier Ret 11 8 7 10 12 François Delecour 6 8 13 Dennis Kuipers 6 8 14 Armindo Araújo 10 15 7 15 7 15 Henning Solberg 13 7 DNS DNS 6 16 Pierre Campana 7 6 17 Thierry Neuville Ret 12 13 8 4 18 Patrik Sandell 8 Ret 4 19 Jari Ketomaa Ret 9 2 20 Ken Block 9 2 21 Peter van Merksteijn Jr. 19 10 1 22 Ricardo Triviño 10 26 1 23 Eyvind Brynildsen 10 1 Pos Driver MON SWE MEX POR ARG GRE NZL FIN GER GBR FRA ITA ESP Pts

Notes:

• ^{1 2 3} refers to the classification of the drivers on the 'Power Stage', where bonus points are awarded 3–2–1 for the fastest three drivers on the stage.

Manufacturers' championship

Pos	Manufacturer	MON	SWE	MEX	POR	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	GER	GBR	FRA	ITA	ESP	Pts
1	Citroën Total World Rally Team	37	28	43	0										108
2	Ford World Rally Team	15	40	15	26										96
3	M-Sport Ford World Rally Team	16	12	10	31										69
4	Qatar World Rally Team		8	8	15										31
5	Mini WRC Team^†	26													26
6	Citroën Junior World Rally Team			6	12										18
7	Adapta World Rally Team			12											12
8	Brazil World Rally Team				10										10
–	Armindo Araújo World Rally Team^‡	4													0
–	Palmeirinha Rally^‡	2													0
Pos	Manufacturer	MON	SWE	MEX	POR	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	GER	GBR	FRA	ITA	ESP	Pts

Notes:

• † — The Mini WRC Team lost its manufacturer status in February when parent company BMW withdrew works support from the team, demoting them to customer team status.^{[6] [7]} The team kept the points it scored on Rallye Monte Carlo although it was no longer classified as a manufacturer entrant. They were replaced by the WRC Team Mini Portugal as the official Mini works team.
• ‡ — Armindo Araújo World Rally Team and Palmeirinha Rally merged to form WRC Team Mini Portugal.^[7] The points they scored at the Rallye Monte Carlo were removed from the manufacturers' championship.^[8]

SWRC Drivers' championship

Pos Driver MON SWE POR NZL FIN GBR FRA ESP  Pts  1 Craig Breen 1 2 Ret 43 2 Hayden Paddon 4 1 37 3 Maciej Oleksowicz 6 2 26 4 Per-Gunnar Andersson Ret 1 25 5 Pontus Tidemand 3 15 6 Pedro Meireles 3 15 7 Yazeed Al-Rajhi 5 Ret 10 8 Alister McRae 7 6 – Giandomenico Basso Ret 0 Pos Driver MON SWE POR NZL FIN GBR FRA ESP Pts

WRC Academy Drivers' Championship

Pos Driver POR GRE FIN GER FRA ESP  Pts  1 Alastair Fisher 1 ^3 28 2 Brendan Reeves 2 ^2 20 3 Pontus Tidemand 3 ^1 16 4 Timo van der Marel 4 12 5 Fredrik Ahlin 6 ^3 11 6 Jose Antonio Suarez 5 10 7 Elfyn Evans 7 6 8 João Silva 8 4 9 John MacCrone 9 2 — Christopher Duplessis Ret 0 Pos Driver POR GRE FIN GER FRA ESP  Pts

Notes:

• ¹ refers to the number of stages won, where a bonus point is awarded per stage win.

Notes and References

1. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98405 Petter Solberg beats Sebastien Loeb to Fafe Rally Sprint win – WRC news – AUTOSPORT.com
2. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98434 Ford dominates Rally Portugal qualifying as Latvala and Solberg finish fastest – WRC news – AUTOSPORT.com
3. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98438 Ford and Citroen choose opposite running order strategy for opening stages of Rally Portugal – WRC news – AUTOSPORT.com
4. News: Rally of Portugal's final Friday stages called off. Autosport. Haymarket Publications. 30 March 2012. 30 March 2012.
5. Web site: RZ22 Sambro 2. ewrc-results.com. 2 April 2012.
6. News: 2012 FIA World Rally Championship – Entrants. fia.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 8 February 2012. 9 February 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120212043305/http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wrc/2012/Pages/2012-wrc-entrants.aspx. 2012-02-12. dead.
7. News: Prodrive loses status as MINI's factory World Rally Team. David. Evans. Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. 6 February 2012. 6 February 2012.
8. News: FIA confirms updated manufacturers’list. World Rally Championship. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 8 February 2012. 9 February 2012. 12 February 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120212033425/http://www.wrc.com/news/fia-confirms-updated-manufacturers-list/?fid=16034. dead.