The 2009 Vodafone Rally de Portugal was the 43rd running of the Rally Portugal and the fourth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season. It took place between 2-5 April 2009 and consisted of 18 special stages.
The event was won by Citroën's Sébastien Loeb ahead of Ford's Mikko Hirvonen and Loeb's teammate Dani Sordo. Norwegian drivers Petter Solberg, his brother Henning Solberg and Mads Østberg took the following positions. The last point-scoring places went to Federico Villagra and Khalid al-Qassimi, after Evgeny Novikov crashed out from eighth place on stage 15, and fifth-placed Matthew Wilson and now eighth-placed Conrad Rautenbach both retired on the penultimate stage.
The early leader Jari-Matti Latvala had a big crash on the fourth stage, rolling his Ford Focus WRC 17 times over a distance of 150 metres. Marcus Grönholm, who came out of retirement to contest the rally in a Prodrive-prepared Subaru Impreza WRC, crashed out from fourth place on stage eight.
Results Pos.DriverCo-driverCarTimeDifferencePoints WRC 1 Sébastien Loeb Daniel Elena Citroën C4 WRC 3:53:13.1 0.0 10 2 Mikko Hirvonen Jarmo Lehtinen Ford Focus RS WRC 08 3:53:37.4 24.3 8 3 Dani Sordo Marc Marti Citroën C4 WRC 3:54:58.5 1:45.4 6 4 Petter Solberg Phil Mills Citroën Xsara WRC 3:55:57.7 2:44.6 5 5 Henning Solberg Cato Menkerud Ford Focus RS WRC 08 3:58:59.4 5:46.3 4 6 Mads Østberg Ole Kristian Unnerud Subaru Impreza WRC 08 3:59:33.9 6:20.8 3 7 Federico Villagra Jose Diaz Ford Focus RS WRC 08 4:06:12.6 12:59.5 2 8 Khalid al-Qassimi Michael Orr Ford Focus RS WRC 08 4:11:24.8 18:21.7 1 JWRC 1 Michal Kosciuszko Maciek Szczepaniak Suzuki Swift S1600 4:22:38.6 0.0 10 2 Kevin Abbring Erwin Mombaerts Renault Clio R3 4:28:45.1 6:06.5 8 3 Hans Weijs Jr. Bjorn Degandt Citroën C2 S1600 4:32:01.3 9:22.7 6 4 Luca Griotti Corrado Bonato Renault Clio R3 4:37:48.7 15:10.9 5 5 Alessandro Bettega Simone Scattolin Renault Clio R3 4:49:23.1 26:44.5 4 6 Simone Bertolotti Luca Celestini Suzuki Swift S1600 5:04:38.9 42:00.3 3 PWRC 1 Armindo Araujo Miguel Ramalho Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 4:15:31.6 0.0 10 2 Martin Prokop Jan Tománek Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 4:16:38.7 1:07.1 8 3 Eyvind Brynildsen Denis Giraudet Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 4:16:44.7 1:13.1 6 4 Nasser Al-Attiyah Giovanni Bernacchini Subaru Impreza WRX STi 4:26:09.2 10:37.6 5 5 Mark Tapper Jeff Rudd Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X 4:41:21.2 25:49.6 4 6 Gianluca Linari Andrea Cecchi Subaru Impreza WRX STi 4:43:39.3 28:07.7 3 7 Gaurav Singh Gill David Senior Subaru Impreza WRX STi 4:46:25.3 30:53.7 2 8 Martin Semerád Bohuslav Ceplecha Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X 5:00:32.7 45:01.1 1
Special stages DayStageTime (WEST)NameLengthWinnerTimeRally leader 1(2-3 APR) SS1 16:50 Estadio Algarve 1 2.21 km Henning Solberg 2:09.6 Henning Solberg SS2 10:15 Ourique 1 23.42 km Jari-Matti Latvala 14:26.9 Jari-Matti Latvala SS3 11:12 Silves 1 21.54 km Jari-Matti Latvala 12:11.6 SS4 11:55 Malhao 1 22.04 km Sébastien Loeb 14:10.8 Daniel Sordo SS5 15:00 Ourique 2 23.42 km Mikko Hirvonen 14:27.3 Mikko Hirvonen SS6 15:57 Silves 2 21.54 km Daniel Sordo 12:09.8 SS7 16:40 Malhao 2 22.04 km Sébastien Loeb 14:06.6 2(4 APR) SS8 09:55 Santa Clara 1 22.61 km Sébastien Loeb 13:52.3 SS9 10:30 Almodovar 1 27.18 km Sébastien Loeb 17:14.6 Sébastien Loeb SS10 11:40 Vascao 1 22.8 km Sébastien Loeb 14:47.2 SS11 14:50 Santa Clara 2 22.61 km Sébastien Loeb 13:50.0 SS12 15:25 Almodovar 2 27.18 km Sébastien Loeb 17:20.3 SS13 16:35 Vascao 2 22.8 km Sébastien Loeb 14:40.6 3(5 APR) SS14 07:50 Loule 1 22.65 km Sébastien Loeb 15:46.6 SS15 08:45 S. Bras Alportel 1 16.23 km Sébastien Loeb 11:40.1 SS16 11:16 Loule 2 22.65 km Mikko Hirvonen 15:34.9 SS17 12:11 S. Bras Alportel 2 16.23 km Mikko Hirvonen 11:36.0 SS18 14:00 Estadio Algarve 2 2.21 km Henning Solberg 2:08.8
References
External links
Official site