Day 3 dawned bright and sunny in Portugal’s Algarve region, on this, the final day of the third round of the 2009 Production World Rally Championship. In contrast, proof of the severity of Rally Portugal’s stages is illustrated by the fact that only eight entrants from the entire Production championship made the start of the final leg of competition: Testament to the strength of the SUBARU machines is that three of those entries were Imprezas.
Starting off the day, the 22-km Loule test (SS14) saw nominal times for the Production runners due to the stage being cancelled on the way of the P-WRC runners’ attempts. The next test, SS15, the first run-through of the S. Bras Alportel stage, was completed as planned before the crews made their way back to the 30-minute Service ahead of the second run-through of the day’s second pair of tests. Prepared for four gravel fights on the final day, the Production crews got only a pair of stages to contest before the event-ending Algarve Stadium finale as SS17 (S. Bras Alportel) was also called off.
Among the Subaru drivers, Nasser Al Attiyah set the third-quickest time through SS14 before that stage was cancelled. He then went sixth fastest on SS15 to maintain his position of fourth overall. With the third-quickest time through SS16, Al Attiyah confirmed his intent to end this tough event in the highest-possible position. His matching third place on the final Superspecial stage brought the Qatari maximum rewards with a fourth-place finish and five championship points.
Gianluca Linari’s trademark steady driving rewarded the Italian with sixth place overall, coming through the day’s tests unscathed and with three points in P-WRC. Meanwhile, Indian driver Gaurav Gill was another to keep a stable pace, setting the fifth-quickest times on both of the gravel stages run today. He ended what was a very demanding event in seventh overall in P-WRC. Despite the less than spectacular final result, Impreza runners won four of the event’s stages (Nasser Al Attiyah taking 3, Patrik Flodin winning 1).
STI Group N Project General Manager George Donaldson:
“It’s been a very encouraging event for us in many ways; yet a very disappointing rally in many others. Certainly the new Impreza has set the competitive mark for all the Group N cars here on these very fast and rough conditions in Portugal - so it’s good to know that we’ve got the pace. We were incredibly unlucky when Nasser bent his steering arm on a particularly rough section - and later on in Day 2 when Patrik made a small mistake with his notes and slipped off the road; nearly surviving, but not quite. We had led for probably half the rally - but ultimately, that’s not good enough. We go to Argentina fully charged in the knowledge that we’re absolutely competitive; so we can go with confidence - but also with a great deal of humility because we know that our drivers and our preparation has to be maximum in order to make sure that none of the errors and pitfalls we’ve experienced here in Portugal are repeated there - and that we can finally get the maiden 2009 P-WRC victory under our belts. Nasser commented to me after the event were: “We know we’ve got the pace, we know we’ve got a very strong Group N car - but we’ve got to be careful not to push past those limits.” I’m confident ahead of Argentina that we know the lay of the land and we can expect our car to perform adequately. Now we just have to bring it all together to get that magic result.”
