LISBON, Portugal: Championship leader Sebastien Ogier was the fastest driver at the Rally of Portugal through Friday’s opening five stages, with Daniel Sordo as his nearest chaser.
Ogier started the day strong by winning the first stage and then moved back to the top of the time standings after Mads Ostberg crashed in the third stage.
Ogier, who leads the championship by 31 points after three of 13 rallies, steered his Volkswagen Polo through the day’s stages in 49 minutes, 33 seconds.
Sordo in his Citroen was 4.4 seconds behind, followed by Finland’s Jar-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen.
Poland’s former Formula One driver Robert Kubica retired from the opening day of the Rally of Portugal, his world championship debut, after damaging his Citroen’s radiator and then running out of tires.
Kubica, who had a near-fatal accident in a minor rally in Italy in 2011, was running strongly but had a puncture and damaged two more tires in Friday’s opening four gravel stages with only one spare in his car.
He had been quick through the second stage despite sliding the car sideways into a ditch, where a branch penetrated the radiator.
“For me he did a great performance today,” said Citroen racing head Yves Matton.
“Despite no experience on gravel apart from two test days he was placed between Esapekka Lappi and Elfyn Evans — two young drivers who are being followed by manufacturers for the future.
“His style is good — it’s very similar to the top drivers.” Kubica last raced in Formula One with Renault, now Lotus, in 2010 and sees rallying as both a way back to grand prix racing and an alternative career if he cannot regain fitness levels.
He is due to compete in seven rounds of the championship in the second tier WRC2 category.
The Pole suffered severe hand and arm injuries in the Feb. 2011 crash and was competing in Portugal in a car fitted with a paddle shift installed to the left of the steering wheel to make it easier for him to change gears.
