Vodafone Rally
de Portugal:
five things we
learned

1: Sebastien Loeb is human

Yes, the eight-time world champion made a mistake. Or to be strictly accurate, he made a mistake in his hearing. The braking was right, the speed was right and the pace note was right. The corner, however, was left...

2: Jari-Matti Latvala is still vulnerable

The Finn doesn’t count what happened to him in Portugal as an accident, but there are two pertinent facts that won’t go away. Firstly, he was leading when it happened. Secondly, his car ended up where it shouldn’t have been: off the road.

3: History can be made when you least expect it

Who would have thought, at the start of the rally, that Mads Ostberg would become the first genuine privateer to win a round of the World Rally Championship since Gianfranco Cunico on Rallye Sanremo in 1993.

4: MINI is getting quicker

Victory on the Power Stage plus five other stage bests for Prodrive’s Dani Sordo is further proof of the emergence of MINI in the world championship with its latest-specification John Cooper Works WRC.

5: Rallying can be a cruel sport

Yazeed Al Rajhi was leading the Super 2000 World Rally Championship by close on 10 minutes when he retired on the final day with the category win firmly in his grasp. Then his car suffered a suspension failure, swiftly followed by a devastating retirement.