Citroen driver Dani Sordo won the televised pre-Rally of Portugal Fafe Rally Sprint when he beat M-Sport driver Mads Ostberg by 1,1 second over the famous Lemeirinha stage in north Portugal.
Citroen and M-Sport provided test cars which were shared between their drivers, but as Sebastien Ogier withdrew through illness, VW teammate Andreas Mikkelsen had an extra run to learn more about driving the Polo R WRC. He was still only just able to come within a second a kilometre of the fastest drivers - before he lost time with a spin.
Neuville mischievously performed some crowd pleasing donut spin turns, allowing Qatar boss Al Attiyah the chance to compete in the final round, but then Nasser had a water leak and was slow. FIA President Jean Todt attended the event when Portuguese federation president Carlos Barbosa expressed the hope that the Rally of Portugal would soon be able to return to the stages in the north of his country.
This was Sordo’s first victory for Citroen since the Monza Rally in 2010. Robert Kubica drove a Citroen DS3 RRC and on the final run was fifth fastest on his first loose-surfaced event behind DMack team driver Martin Prokop (Fiesta WRC) and Mikkelsen.