At Friday, the first full day of Rally de Portugal, crew of Eurolamp WRT took twelfth place in WRC2. Their gap from the category standings leader Nasser Al-Attiyah was three and a half minutes. This gap partly have grown through two flat tires.
The first trouble occurred on SS3, about seven kilometers next to the finish. During landing after jumping front tire flew off the rim. As a result, Valeriy Gorban and Vladimir Korsia had to overcome last part of stage on three and a half wheels and lose precious seconds. As a result, the plan for the second section of the day was pretty clear – to increase pace and to recoup.
“We had planned to use soft type of tires both on the morning stage and on the second half of the day. Besides that we were going to use a used kit of tires during last three stages. So long as SS5, the longest special stage of Friday, was canceled because of the fire, this only had helped us with such decision. That is, we save the tires for Saturday and Sunday. But our speed is not any the worse for it. We have corrected our pace notes during the first passage of today’s special stages and this will enable us to accelerate let alone others things. As yet we can not keep as high speed as we want. But the doubtless fact is that we will race faster”, – promised during the service Valeriy Gorban.
And he kept his word. On SS6 the crew of Eurolamp WRT was seventh in WRC2 category. And they had had not so bad pace on the final stage of the day – on SS7. But then they were lucked out again. The same situation as on SS3 happened once more. Shortly before the finish – 6 or 7 kilometers next to one – a rear tire flew off the rim. Valeriy Gorban and Vladimir Korsia again had to overcome last part of stage on three and a half wheels and they again lost precious seconds.
“Many crews had problems with tires today. In our case, both times the blame lay probably with very deep ruts in which the tires might slightly unstick from the rim under load, and while landing after jump tires were ripped away. We have lost not less a minute on two flat tires, but except that fact, the whole day went quite well for us. We can say that we are satisfied, “- Vladimir Korsia said in the end of the day.
Saturday at the Rally de Portugal includes two sections of three special stages, a total length of 165 kilometers. One of them, Fridao (SS10 and SS13), is the longest stage in the current race – almost 38 kilometers.
