* Finn has nine-point lead in championship
* Portuguese conditions tough, says Hirvonen
(Adds detail, quotes)
April 1 (Reuters) – Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen won the Rally
of Portugal on Sunday to seize the world championship lead from
Citroen team mate Sebastien Loeb.
The victory, after all his main works team rivals had
crashed out in tough conditions on the Algarve roads, was
Hirvonen’s first for the French manufacturer since moving from
Ford at the end of last year.
Norway’s Mads Ostberg finished second, one minute 51.8
seconds behind, in a privately-entered Ford while Russian Evgeny
Novikov, also driving a Ford, took his first world rally
championship podium in third place.
Hirvonen (75 points) now leads Loeb, the eight-times
champion who retired on the first day in Portugal, by nine
points overall after four of 13 rounds.
“I’m relieved more than anything because this has been a
very difficult rally,” Hirvonen told the world rally
championship website (www.wrc.com).
“The conditions were very tough so it’s great to come
through with no problems and win for Citroen,” added the Finn
who led since Friday but failed to win a single stage.
Ostberg and 21-year-old Novikov endured last-day dramas, the
former’s Ford running on three cylinders while the Russian’s
Fiesta suffered a throttle problem.
Novikov’s co-driver Denis Giraudet became, at 56, the oldest
co-driver to stand on the world rally championship podium.
Norwegian Petter Solberg finished fourth, 22 seconds off a
podium place, after sliding into a ditch while leading on Friday
and returning with a 10-minute time penalty on Saturday.
Organisers cancelled half of Friday’s stages after heavy
rain left the muddy roads churned up and treacherous.
“The weekend was a big, big adventure,” said Solberg who is
third overall with 59 points to Loeb’s 66. “To finish fourth
after everything that happened is a fantastic feeling.”
Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah was fifth in a Citroen.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Mark Meadows)
