The final stage of the 2015 Vodafone Rally de Portugal brought with it all the thrills and excitement that rally fans expect from the iconic Fafe roads. Volkswagen Motorsport dominated the Power Stage, with all three drivers finishing on the podium for the stage as well as the event as a whole.
Sebastien Ogier capitalised on the opportunity to gain three extra points, and dominated with a time of 6:43 over Fafe’s 11.15km. The Frenchman wowed the crowds with a massive jump, as did teammate Andreas Mikkelsen, who was the third fastest over the stage, claiming an additional point in the process.
All eyes, however, were on Jari-Matti Latvala, who was determined to hold onto his lead over the event. He did so with ease, and while he lost the stage win to Ogier by a mere 2.2 seconds, he claimed an event win care of an impressive 8.2-second lead.
In WRC2, Esapekka Lappi was the fastest over the stage, but it was nowhere near enough to take anything out of Nasser Al-Attiyah. The latter driver was second fastest on the stage in his class, finishing 1.8 seconds behind Lappi in his Fiesta. However, he was the fastest in class and took the event win within WRC2. Third fastest over the stage in WRC2 was Pontus Tidemand.
With tens of thousands of fans lining the power stage, the challenge was on for the drivers to provide excitement care of spectacular jumps. They all delivered, but the award for most spectacular has to go to Robert Kubica, landing so hard and so far that the impact set off alarms within his Ford Fiesta WRC, though he still finished the stage at speed!