Portugal WRC: Meeke seals victory, Ogier tops Power Stage
Kris Meeke secured the second WRC victory of his career after cruising through the final two stages of Rally Portugal.
Winners Kris Meeke, Paul Nagle, Citroën DS3 WRC, Citroën World Rally Team
Citroën Communication
Only losing six seconds in the final two tests, Citroen driver Meeke completed the rally leading by half a minute to seal his first win since his maiden triumph in Argentina last year.
While the Northern Irishman's victory was in no doubt on Sunday, the battle for second between Andreas Mikkelsen and Sebastien Ogier remained close until the end.
Having claimed the spot after winning both stages in the first loop, Mikkelsen was close behind Ogier in the final two runs, and kept 4.8s of his lead to hang on to second.
However, Ogier minimised his losses by topping the Power Stage, with Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikkelsen completing an all-Volkswagen top three.
Dani Sordo cruised to take fourth for the third time in a row, with Eric Camilli securing his top WRC finish in fifth despite a spin in the Power Stage, just finishing ahead of the charging Latvala.
The Volkswagen driver, who had steering issues on Friday, was more than a minute adrift after Saturday, but ended up just five seconds short in the end.
Second M-Sport driver Mads Ostberg made it home in seventh to stay third in the points standings, as Martin Prokop completed the top eight.
Standings after SS19:
Pos. | Driver | Team | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
Kris Meeke Paul Nagle |
Citroen | 3h59m01.0s |
2 |
Andreas Mikkelsen Anders Jaeger |
Volkswagen | +29.7s |
3 |
Sebastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia |
Volkswagen | +34.5s |
4 |
Dani Sordo Marc Marti |
Hyundai | +1m37.1s |
5 |
Eric Camilli Benjamin Veillas |
Ford | +4m01.6s |
6 |
Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila |
Volkswagen | +4m06.9s |
7 |
Mads Ostberg Ola Floene |
Ford | +6m65.6s |
8 |
Martin Prokop Jan Tomanek |
Ford | +10m24.1s |
9 |
Pontus Tidemand Jonas Andersson |
Skoda | +11m45.2s |
10 |
Nicolas Fuchs Fernando Mussano |
Skoda | +13m14.0s |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments