Reigning IRC Champion Juho Hanninen has
taken the lead on the Sata Rally Açores today in
his Skoda Motorsport Fabia S2000.
Last year's winner Bruno Magalhaes is
second and early leader Andreas Mikkelsen, in the Skoda UK car, is
third. Power-steering failure on Mikkelsen's Fabia 4kms from the end
of SS2 and having to fight his car through the final, twisty,
super-special stage dropped him to third. He sits just 5 secs off the
lead, and 1.4 secs behind Magalhaes.
Skoda Sweden's Patrick Sandell's
pre-event prediction of the Skodas being quick seems to be ringing
true as the first day draws to a close. Sandell and works driver Jan
Kopecky are fifth and fourth, respectively, in their Fabia's, which
makes it four Fabias in the top 5.
Moura Ricardo is sixth in his
Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X, making him fastest Group N pilot. He holds
an 18.9 sec lead over Subaru Impreza driver, Vitor Lopes, who is
currently sitting ninth.
Seventh & eighth are Peugeot
drivers Guy Wilks and current Championship leader Bryan Bouffier.
Wilks sits 29.3 secs behind leader Hanninen after electing to play
road-order tactics in SS2, while Bouffier is 7 secs behind Wilks, the
legacy of being first on the road.
Toshi Arai is quickest of the R4-spec
Imprezas. He spun then stalled the car on the final stage, dropping
him to tenth, 56.2 secs off the pace. Team-mate Fumio Nutahara is
fourteenth, 1min 18.8 secs off the lead.
In the IRC 2WD section, Paulo Maciel
leads the category in his Citroen Saxo, with Harry Hunt, on-board a
Citroen DS3 R3T, in close pursuit, 6.5 secs behind. Ruben Rodrigues
is third in a Citroen C2 R2 Max. He is 11.6 secs off the lead.
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