Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team drivers Kris Meeke and Mads Ostberg had an excellent day at the office in Vodafone Rally de Portugal, Round 5 of the FIA World Rally Championship.

The Northern Irishman ended the day in a strong second overall while the Norwegian was well inside the points in seventh going into the penultimate day. At the wheel of the third DS 3 WRC, Sheikh Khalid bin Faisal Al Qasimi was forced to retire at the half-way stage of day two with mechanical issues. But the Abu Dhabi ace will restart on Saturday under Rally 2 regulations.

Al Qasimi, behind the wheel of the newly updated DS 3 WRC for the first time, enjoyed the 3.36km Lousada spectator stage on Thursday night on the Rallycross Circuit where nearly 50,000 fans had lined the route to see their favourite drivers in action from close range.

On Friday, the first two special stages went relatively well for Al Qasimi. However, even before he could start SS4, Sheikh Khalid encountered hand-brake issues with the DS3 WRC and despite trying several times he was unable to fix the issue himself. As a result, the car was taken of the start area where crews were then able to temporarily fix the issue and take the DS 3 WRC to the service area.

"It is a pity really that I had to encounter this hand-brake issue at a time when I was really enjoying driving the updated DS 3 WRC. In fact, we encountered similar issues during the tests but then, this is the nature of rallying, anything can happen. Now we will restart under Rally 2 regulations. It will mean I will incur a time penalty, but then I want to finish the event and bring the car home safely on Sunday.”

Rally organisers then cancelled the re-running of the Ponte de Lima stage, the SS5, because of nearby forest fires.
Source: WAM