Photo by: Andre Lavadinho
A special start for Daniel Oliveira in Australia
The BWRT driver settled in 10th position overall after the opening Super Special stage
Competing in Rally Australia for the first time, Daniel Oliveira and Carlos Magalhaes started the Oz showdown in high-spirits as they completed the opening stages of the only round held in the fifth continent.
After a year off Australia got the calendar’s slot back and returned to the WRC arena with a new itinerary and 26 stages widespread around the North coast of New South Wales in the Coffs Coast region for the first time.
The Super Special Stage located in the waterfront of Coffs Harbour was the venue chosen by the event's organizers to kick off the tenth round of the FIA World Rally Championship where thousands of fans flocked together to see the show.
At the wheel of the MINI John Cooper Works WRC Daniel Oliveira completed the two runs through the 3.77-kilometre section with 5:46.0 to settle in the 10th position in the overall standings. In the first run, SS1, he recorded 2:54.5, as for the second one, SS2, he was able to shave three seconds on his first time.
Daniel’s word. “The car worked well. The rain made things a little bit more complicated on the Super Special and we didn’t want to face any risks. The rally starts tomorrow. The idea is to keep on doing a great job and try to offer a good performance to the thousands of fans who are following the event. Honestly, I got overwhelmed by the amount of people who follow us. People in Australia are amazing”.
A tough start. The real action kicks off tomorrow with eight stages scheduled and 123.06 competitive kilometres starting with the Plum Pudding stage, a tough 30-kilometre challenge the drivers must tackle as soon as they leave the Service Area.
All for Citroen. At the wheel of both Citroen DS3 WRC Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier took one victory each in the Super Special stage; however, it was the latter who is leading the competition with seven tenth over his team-mate. Finnish Jari-Matti Latvala came in third position with the Ford Fiesta WRC 1.2s adrift.
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
The eight minutes of madness that saw Ogier strike in Croatia
WRC Croatia: Ogier takes shock lead as Neuville, Evans crash
Toyota selects Ogier for WRC’s visit to Croatia
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
How Ogier's Citroen dream died
What is a wildcard in MotoGP and why is it used?
McLaughlin issues statement following St. Pete disqualification
Full-time IndyCar move “an option” says supersub Pourchaire
When Senna broke his F1 duck by walking on water
The eight minutes of madness that saw Ogier strike in Croatia
How Rovanpera showed his class above his WRC rivals in Kenya
How a new 'old' challenge is capturing the spirit of British rallying lore
How Lappi survived Swedish snow carnage to snap his lengthy WRC drought
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