Portugal : Stobart M-Sport Ford - FinishStobart VK M-Sport Ford team maintains their fourth position in the FIA World Rally Championship manufacturers' standings despite a time penalty following Sunday's finish of the Rally de Portugal.
Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka
Anttila, Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud and Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr each received a five-minute penalty after this fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Event scrutineers drew the team's attention to the fact that the rear side windows on the Ford Focus RS World Rally Cars of all three crews did not comply with the homologation form of the car in terms of thickness. The matter was referred to the FIA stewards of the meeting.
Team representatives attended a meeting of the stewards at which they accepted that a breach of regulations had taken place. The penalty was accepted by the team and no appeal was made.
Henning Solberg
“We found a good setting today for the second loop of stages and the surface on these stages is more like Argentina, so at least we have a good idea of what set-up to start the rally with. I was disappointed with our problem on the last stage as we were challenging for seventh position and now end up ninth (revised to 11th). Generally, this event has been quite difficult for me but again it is important that we got to the finish and got more experience of the car on gravel. It will still take some more time for me to be comfortable and confident and be able to push harder for some good stage times.
We will keep trying and I won't give up.”
Jari-Matti Latvala
“The car has performed really well this rally and I think I have improved a lot each day. Today I was actually trying to drive slower than yesterday and we were setting better times, I think we were pushing too hard then and over-driving the car but today the notes and everything just worked. I found a good balance to drive safely today because I had no reason to push and I am very happy to finish in the top six (revised to eighth). I enjoyed this rally very much and hopefully we can continue this speed and perhaps go faster in future rallies.”
Matthew Wilson
“The stages today were really good and obviously I was pushing hard to get ahead of Araujo. Now I have woken up and am starting to realise exactly what the car can do. I'm frustrated about what happened on Saturday and I know I should have used the grip more; but today was really good and I'm much happier now on this surface. It has helped my confidence for Argentina as we finished the rally on a high, catching and passing Araujo on the last stage and its really good for me to finish the rally with my best stage of the weekend.”
Malcolm Wilson, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team Principal
“It has been another good performance from the team and especially from Jari. His times were great and he would definitely have been challenging Sordo if he didn't have those problems on Friday. Both nominated crews scored manufacturer points and we have increased our margin over the OMV team. It's been a good solid performance from Matt and he was able to put the top local driver under pressure today, while moving up a spot. It's been good for everyone to finish and get more gravel experience as we head to Argentina and Sardinia.”
Source Stobart VK M-Sport Ford
