'Fast Freddy' has landed his second straight win in this year's IRC. Loix won the event with 37.8 secs in hand over fellow Skoda driver Jan Kopecky. Third was IRC 2010 Drivers table leader Juho Hanninen. Rounding out the Top 6 was Miguel Nunes, Victor Sá and Filipe Freitas. Nunes was the highest placed driver in the Madeiran National Championship section of the rally.
Rali Vinho Madeira 2010 will not be a rally that Peugeot Sport will remember fondly. First of all, Bruno Magalhaes wrote off his Peugeot 207 S2000 on SS3 when the brakes failed heading towards a right-hand bend. The car went up over an Armco barrier and down a 20ft drop. Both Bruno and Carlos Magalhaes OK after the crash.
After that, Kris Meeke was holding firm in second place until SS17. 2.8 Kms into the stage, Meeke's 207 S2000 ground to a halt after he lost all oil pressure in the engine. Meeke's engine was an almost new engine, which had only seen a part of the Geko Ypres Rally. He had also had some problems during the rally, with the alternator giving some bother on SS15. However, this was not related with the engine failure he suffered on SS17.
One upside for Peugeot Sport was that Burku Cetinkaya finished the rally 17th o/a, her first time competing on the event in a 4WD car.
It seems that Peugeot Sport's cars may be carrying some form of bad omen, with 8 other Peugeot 207 S2000s finishing the rally in one piece. Nunes Miguel finished highest Peugeot driver.
“It’s a big disappointment for Kris. He had been fighting from the start of the rally and driving very well. For the championship it is now very, very difficult but for sure he will stay positive and come back from this.”
“For the moment we still don’t know exactly what has happened other than he lost oil pressure but it is no relation to the other problem,” Yves Matton added, stand-in for Marc Van Dalen, who wasn't present at the rally.
It wasn't all plain sailing on the rally for the Skoda's either. Hanninen clouted a concrete wall on the final day, damaging the right-rear of the Fabia, which resulted in a puncture, and Kopecky caught a big slide in third gear, going around a left-hander.
Duarte Ramos won the IRC 2WD section of the rally by a massive 18 mins 10.1 secs to Carvalho Filipe. Ramos' win in the 2WD section means that he becomes the seventh winner of the class this year. This moves him into joint third with Kevin Abbring, Harry Hunt, Yeray Lemes, Kris Princen and Marcos Tokarski. Rafael Tulio heads the table on 20 points, and is the only driver with two wins this year to his name. Peugeot now lead the manufacturers table, 4 points ahead of M-Sport.
Loix also won the Colin McRae IRC Flat Out Trophy for the most spectacular drive over the course of the rally.
Fretias Filipe was fastest Group N driver in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, with Joao Magalhaes in a similar car second and Pedro Peres third, also in an Evo, but this time in an Evo XI.
Pedro Meireles finished highest Subaru driver in his Impreza, finishing 12th o/a, 5th highest Group N car, around 15 mins off Loix.
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