Ogier wins Rally of Portugal, extends lead
Sebastien Ogier extended his lead in the World Rally championship by winning the Rally of Portugal.
ALMODOVAR (AP) - Sebastien Ogier extended his lead in the World Rally championship by winning the Rally of Portugal on Sunday.
The French driver steered his Volkswagen Polo through the final four stages in the Algarve to finish 58.2 seconds ahead of Finland s Mikko Hirvonen in second.
Ogier s teammate Jar-Matti Latvala came in third, more than four minutes off the pace.
It was Ogier s third victory in the first four races of the 13-event season.
The victory, however, appeared to be in doubt when a clutch problem caused Ogier to lose time during the first stage. But his team managed to keep the car going and he cruised to the win.
"It s a perfect result but this week has been really complicated for us," said Ogier. "Today was more than stressful for me, and at the start of the first one I thought the rally was over because the clutch was slipping. Finally it came back. It was a kind of miracle.
"The team has done a good job because this was a very rough rally and we have had many small problems. They managed to fix the car all the time so big congratulations to them."
Ogier now has 102 points in the championship standings, 54 ahead of Hirvonen.
It was the 29-year-old Ogier s ninth career win, and his third win in Portugal after emerging victorious in 2010 and 2011.
The next race is in Argentina on May 1-4.
