Rally Portugal 2010: Day 3 Updates – Kimi finishes 10th

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Sebastien Ogier clinched his maiden World Rally Championship victory
in Portugal on Sunday.

The Frenchman secured the win by keeping fellow Citroen driver
Sebastien Loeb at bay during the day’s earlier stages and sealed the
achievement on the final two-kilometre superspecial asphalt stage in the
Algarve stadium.

Ogier went head-to-head with Loeb for the finale in the stadium and
beat the reigning world champion by 0.2s, giving him an overall winning
margin of just 7.9s.

"It’s just perfect," said Ogier. "It was an amazing weekend, I pushed
from the first day until now – all weekend it was a big battle and very
hard to keep Seb [Loeb] behind me.

"To win my first rally like this, after a big battle with Seb, is
just perfect. In New Zealand I lost it but I said that when I did win,
it would be even more happy – and I am very happy today."

Despite finishing in third place on the final stage, Raikkonen was
disappointed to end the event in 10th place after suffering tyre
problems and falling two places on the final day.

"This afternoon there was one right-hander with something on the
inside and I went on two wheels, broke the front right tyre and I lost
two places," said Raikkonen. "That’s life, but at least I finished and
learned the rally."

Pos Driver             Car        Time/Gap
 1. Sebastien Ogier    Citroen  3h51.16.1s
 2. Sebastien Loeb     Citroen       +7.9s
 3. Dani Sordo         Citroen    +1m17.6s
 4. Mikko Hirvonen     Ford       +1m32.0s
 5. Petter Solberg     Citroen    +1m35.7s
 6. Matthew Wilson     Ford       +7m10.1s
 7. Mads Ostberg       Subaru     +7m28.3s
 8. Federico Villagra  Ford      +10m36.1s
 9. Khalid Al Qassimi  Ford      +10m55.8s
10. Kimi Raikkonen     Citroen   +11m34.3s

Kimi Raikkonen
Driver Blog from Rally Portugal

Source: RallyBuzz.com

Writing this from Portugal is a bit of a new experience for me,
particularly as I have never even been to Portugal before! It’s a nice
country, but I have to say that the stages are really tricky.

I expected this rally to be quite difficult from the start, but
maybe not this difficult. I’ve been back in the car for the first time
in over a month, and although I had a day of testing in France, that’s
hardly the same as being in competition in Portugal.

The most difficult thing? Actually there are lots of tricky things.
First of all, everyone has a lot more experience than me. All the other
guys have seen these stages for the last three years but this is still
only my seventh-ever WRC rally.

Then there are the stages themselves. The rally is on gravel and I’m
finding the grip really inconsistent. There are also a few other things
catching me out.

For example, you often have corners that are right on the top of
some crests and this makes it really difficult to get the braking and
the line right. I can tell you this now: rallying is a lot harder than
Formula One, but as always it just depends on what you’re used to.

The engineers sometimes talk to the drivers over the radio in
Formula One, but this is something that I never really liked: I
preferred just to get on and drive the car. So imagine what it’s like
now, when I have a co-driver telling me what to do all the time! Getting
the pace notes right is an important part of rallying and I think we
have some way to go before we have completely got on top of that.

So, it’s really not easy. But I’m definitely enjoying myself. For a
start, the atmosphere is much more relaxed and a lot less political than
it was in Formula One. I’ve been made to feel very welcome; there are
nice people here. There’s no pressure either: I’m just learning
something different at my own pace.

I like Portugal too. When you are in a rally car you get to see some
of the country you are in: it’s not like Formula One where all you see
is the airport, the hotel and the circuit.

We’re staying in a hotel in Vilamoura: quite a nice tourist place
that has a little port and some restaurants and bars. Although the days
on a rally are very long, over the course of the year you get more time
to yourself and I am really enjoying that.

Portuguese people seem to love motor sport: in fact any sport! The
service park for the rally is in the Estadio Algarve: a stadium just
outside of Faro. I’ve forgotten the name of the team that plays there,
but somebody told me that they weren’t very good. Just goes to show,
life is tough when you’re a top sportsman…

SS18 – Estadio Algarve 2

SS17 – Loule 2

SS15 – Loule 1



SS14 – Felizes 1