Zoom Magalhaes breaks through

With the third stage of Rally Portugal came the event's third leader: Bruno Magalhaes has taken over the 42nd edition of his home race at the conclusion of the 23-kilometre long Vascao stage.

The Portuguese driver was not the fastest contender through however, with Peugeot Belgium-Luxemburg's Freddy Loix claiming the top spot on this run with a fastest time of 15:27.4, over three seconds quicker than Magalhaes' Peugeot.

Following the two leading Peugeot 207 S2000 cars, Giandomenico Basso brought in his Fiat Grand Punto S2000 less than a second away in third position.

Nicolas Vouilloz, who was leading the event this morning, came in fourth on this run after losing 8.6 seconds to his teammmate Loix – a performance which cost him the overall lead in Magalhaes' favour.

Last evening's Faro super special winner and first leader of the rally, Luca Rossetti, drove into the fifth spot aboard his Peugeot. Jan Kopecky's same-make ride was close behind in sixth.

First driver over the 15-second mark on this stage, François Duval claimed seventh place ahead of former WRC champion Didier Auriol, also racing at the controls of a Fiat Grande Punto Super 2000.

By taking ninth position with his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, Juho Hanninen also gave the best performance of the Group N class, 29.2 seconds down from the stage winner. Tenth-placed Brice Tirabassi came close to taking that position as he crossed the line only three tenths of a second in tow.

Austrian driver Andreas Aigner lost three minutes on this route after stopping to change a punctured tyre. Of note, double World Rally Champion Marcus Grönholm stopped his 'Zero' car due to an unknown technical problem.

On the leaderboard, Bruno Magalhaes presently holds a 2.7-second overall lead on Nicolas Vouilloz, who in turn has a 5.9-second advantage on Giandomenico Basso. Freddy Loix is in contention for third place, only 1.8 seconds away from Basso, while Luca Rossetti completes the top five as he stands 16.7 seconds down the line from the rally leader.

Daniel BASTIEN
© CAPSIS International