A quick end of day 3 update from 2012 Rally Portugal.

Alister Fisher wins WRC Academy

After Fords Problems on Day 2 target was 4th or 5th. After 3 Stage wins Petter moved up to 4th but power steering issues on final stage dropped him back down to 5th overall. An Exhausted petter at stage end said “No powersteering, it happened just before the stage. So I lost my 4th place. Maybe, oh today…. Tomorrow”

Photo:D.Darrall

Problems continued for Latvala. Stopped on SS15 with fuel pressure problems.

Sordo wins last stage.

Mikko Hirvonen leads Comfortable by over a minute on 2nd place Mads Ostberg. “We managed to take some time out of them, but there is still anther day to go. Luckily conditions were a lot more consistent.”

Ostberg had a worry on final stage, loud noise from the rear od the car. But it was only due to small guard that protects the driveshaft which had came off.

“I thought the whole car was falling apart, really loud noise at rear of the car. Tried to push but didn’t wanna destroy anything. Like a rock concert when we were driving. I thought both wheels were off. Hopefully we didn’t lose too much towards end”

Photo: D.Darrall

End of Day 3 results:
Hirvo leads
Ostb+1m11s9
Novik+1m41s2
Al-Attiy+6m10s1
PSolb+6m29s2
Prokp+6m47s5
Kuipers+7m29s8
Ogier+8m00s2.