Before every rally the crews have a recce and shakedown – all of it is necessary to understand characteristics of the roads of forthcoming rally and to prepare. But, despite of intensive days of preparations, the Eurolamp WRT’s crew couldn’t fully understand the roads of Rally Portugal.

«If we speak about characteristics of the Rally Portugal route, the main of them is tendency of the roads’ surface to be digged by rally cars during the race. After what we could see during the recce and shakedown, we can say that the roads had been prepared very well. The surface is quite solid and there is temptation to wait that the rally roads will not be digged despite of the worst expectations», – said Valery Gorban after the shakedown.

«In fact, most likely, all will depend on where and how strong the rain was and where and how compact the ground was tamped. And it is the main puzzle of forthcoming rally. But we hope that the event will be interesting…»

On Thursday evening the spectacular super special stage on Lousada rallycross circuit opened Rally Portugal. But this short warm-up didn’t give any hint about where the crews were with the rally roads. The distance was very short – nearly 3 kilometers. And mixed, gravel-tarmac surface did not come near the roads that the crew will use during next three days of the rally. So unveiling of secrets of Rally Portugal’s roads will begin on the first special stages on Friday.

On Friday the participants will overcome more than 150 kilometers of 8 special stages.