The FIA World Rally Championship returns to Europe this week for round five of the series - Rally de Portugal, which is back on the calendar after a break of six years.
Portugal was first included on the WRC calendar in 1973, but took a break after the 2001 running of the event. Non-championship trials in 2005 and 2006 were observed by the sport’s governing body, the
FIA, and the rally was promoted back to the schedule for this year.
The ‘old’ WRC event used to be based in the north of the country, but now it is in the south, and the special stages will be unfamiliar to most of the leading crews until they drive them for the first time during their route reconnaissance.
The rally opens with the Algarve Stadium Superspecial at 1800hrs on Thursday 29 March, and the competitive action ends in the same location on Sunday 1 April, with the final stage due to start at 1345hrs. In total, the rally route covers 1008.70km, which includes 357.10km of special stages and 651.60km of road sections.
Special notes:
Formerly a mixed asphalt and gravel rally that covered much of the country, Portugal was named best rally in the championship on six occasions. However, it lost its place in 2002 and has been reborn in the Algarve, an area which has seen little national or international rallying.
The service area is at the Algarve Stadium, a spectacular sports venue not far from the city of Faro, on the south coast.
For the competitive sections of the event, the crews will travel into the hills of the Algarve, a popular destination for tourists and golf enthusiasts, and also head north across the border into a province known as Baixo Alentejo, famed for vast, undulating plains which are home to much of the country’s agriculture industry.
