Porto, Portugal: On its return to the WRC after a three-month break, the Abu Dhabi Total WRT was in impressive form on the opening leg of Rally de Portugal.
Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle produced a near-perfect display to end the day in the lead, more than thirty seconds clear of their closest challengers. Stephane Lefebvre and Gabin Moreau also delivered a very fine performance, which left them in sixth place in the overall standings. Shaikh Khalid Bin Faisal Al Qasimi and Chris Patterson ended the day in 16th position.
Following Thursday evening’s ceremonial start held in front of the Castelo de Guimaraes, the crews contested the opening super special stage on the Lousada rallycross circuit. This morning, the cars headed for service to fit soft Michelin LTX Force tyres, well suited to the slightly damp conditions that lingered on the gravel roads.
More than five months after his last gravel rally, Kris Meeke quickly found the right feeling in the car. He won the Ponte de Lima and Caminha stages (SS2 and SS3) to take the lead and then consolidate it. The Northern Irishman then increased his lead on Viana do Castelo to head back for Porto some 11.5 seconds clear of Sebastien Ogier.
At this stage of the rally, Stephane Lefebvre was ninth overall. The Frenchman had lost around twenty seconds on SS3 due to a loose tyre, but he was generally happy with this pace. Within two tenths per kilometre of the stage-winning time on SS4, he had already shown he was making significant progress.
After the midday service, the cars completed second runs on the three stages. Unlike most of their rivals, the Abu Dhabi Total WRT drivers opted to go with hard compound Michelin tyres.
The second run on Ponte di Lima (SS5) saw a series of incidents, including a heavy crash for Hayden Paddon that left his car burnt out and led to the breakout of a fire in the surrounding forest. Unsurprisingly, the stage was cancelled before Kris Meeke came through, but he was later handed the stage-winning time by the stewards based on his run in the morning loop.
Taking full advantage of his tyre choice, Meeke set the fastest times on the next two stages to extend his lead to over half a minute.
Continuing to combine speed and consistency, Stephane Lefebvre benefited from racing incidents and his astute tyre choice to move up the leaderboard. Seventh after SS5, he claimed another place to grab sixth position.
“I’m very pleased at the end of this day, we were quick from start to finish. Perhaps spending the last few months away from the rallies has just whetted my appetite! We made the right call on tyre choice for the afternoon loop. After SS5 was cancelled, we just drove slowly through the stage and there was a really nasty section where Hayden went off. Fortunately, I had set a good time this morning and the time awarded by the stewards didn’t penalise me,” said Kris Meeke.
