After the huge success of the first two editions, the WRC Fafe Rally Sprint is back for another year of strong emotions in what is expected to be, once again, the perfect “appetizer” for the Vodafone Rally de Portugal.
Starting on Saturday, March 29th, from 2pm onwards, the event will host once more some of the most famous names of the World Rally Championship, such as the World Champion Sébastien Ogier, absent in 2012 due to a flue and this year’s only driver at the wheel of the Polo R WRC, Elfyn Evans and Ott Tanak, sharing the M-Sport’s Fiesta RS WRC, Mads Østberg and Kris Meeke, both on the same DS3 WRC, Dani Sordo, last year’s winner and the only driver who aim to repeat the highest step of the rostrum, with the new i20 WRC, and Martin Prokop, the sole representative of the private drivers of the World Championship blue ribbon class.
But the event won’t comprise only WRC stars. Among the 32 teams entry list, four will also be racing on the Vodafone Rally de Portugal with WRC 2 cars, as well as six national pairs which will also participate in the Rally the following week. Adding to Ricardo Moura, Pedro Meireles, Bernardo Sousa (one of the four WRC 2 cars), Rui Madeira, João Barros and Diogo Salvi, the WRC Fafe Rally Sprint will also feature the participation of five other national teams in the two main classes, besides 10 other participations in the Historic Vehicles class, all of them “playing for the home team”.
As always, the WRC Fafe Rally Sprint will feature the usual three passages layout over the last 6 km of the Fafe/Lameirinha stage, with Confurco and the “Pedra” Crest being the two highlights of a stage which last year hosted more than 100,000 spectators along these remarkable 6.37 km of the Rally de Portugal history.
Following the tradition, the Final is reserved for the top 15 pairs from Classes B and C. However, one cannot draw a line after the 15th place to have the list of finalists. On Class B (one team, one car) drivers do both qualifying runs and are placed according to their best time. Class C, however, consists of a somewhat different story. With one car being shared by two drivers, only the fastest of each pair will go on to the third and decisive run.
As far as Class A (Historic Vehicles) is concerned, drivers will only run the stage on the second and third runs, with the final result being determined by the best result of each driver in any of the passages.
“Fafe is passionate for sports and rallies, for the show and emotions they unveil. These are very relevant events for the Municipality and a proof of how sports can contribute to the development of a territory. For the third year in a row we will host this event in Fafe and we don’t want to stop here; the Municipality wishes to keep on being on the route of motorsports great events, showing the Country that we are the Rallies Cathedral,” states the Fafe Mayor, Raúl Cunha.
Therefore, and with a set of similar arguments like these, everything is ready for what will certainly be a brilliant “prologue” for the Vodafone Rally de Portugal which you just can’t miss!
Programme
After the huge success of the first two editions, the WRC Fafe Rally Sprint is back for another year of strong emotions in what is expected to be, once again, the perfect “appetizer” for the Vodafone Rally de Portugal.
Starting on Saturday, March 29th, from 2pm onwards, the event will host once more some of the most famous names of the World Rally Championship, such as the World Champion Sébastien Ogier, absent in 2012 due to a flue and this year’s only driver at the wheel of the Polo R WRC, Elfyn Evans and Ott Tanak, sharing the M-Sport’s Fiesta RS WRC, Mads Østberg and Kris Meeke, both on the same DS3 WRC, Dani Sordo, last year’s winner and the only driver who aim to repeat the highest step of the rostrum, with the new i20 WRC, and Martin Prokop, the sole representative of the private drivers of the World Championship blue ribbon class.
But the event won’t comprise only WRC stars. Among the 32 teams entry list, four will also be racing on the Vodafone Rally de Portugal with WRC 2 cars, as well as six national pairs which will also participate in the Rally the following week. Adding to Ricardo Moura, Pedro Meireles, Bernardo Sousa (one of the four WRC 2 cars), Rui Madeira, João Barros and Diogo Salvi, the WRC Fafe Rally Sprint will also feature the participation of five other national teams in the two main classes, besides 10 other participations in the Historic Vehicles class, all of them “playing for the home team”.
As always, the WRC Fafe Rally Sprint will feature the usual three passages layout over the last 6 km of the Fafe/Lameirinha stage, with Confurco and the “Pedra” Crest being the two highlights of a stage which last year hosted more than 100,000 spectators along these remarkable 6.37 km of the Rally de Portugal history.
Following the tradition, the Final is reserved for the top 15 pairs from Classes B and C. However, one cannot draw a line after the 15th place to have the list of finalists. On Class B (one team, one car) drivers do both qualifying runs and are placed according to their best time. Class C, however, consists of a somewhat different story. With one car being shared by two drivers, only the fastest of each pair will go on to the third and decisive run.
As far as Class A (Historic Vehicles) is concerned, drivers will only run the stage on the second and third runs, with the final result being determined by the best result of each driver in any of the passages.
“Fafe is passionate for sports and rallies, for the show and emotions they unveil. These are very relevant events for the Municipality and a proof of how sports can contribute to the development of a territory. For the third year in a row we will host this event in Fafe and we don’t want to stop here; the Municipality wishes to keep on being on the route of motorsports great events, showing the Country that we are the Rallies Cathedral,” states the Fafe Mayor, Raúl Cunha.Therefore, and with a set of similar arguments like these, everything is ready for what will certainly be a brilliant “prologue” for the Vodafone Rally de Portugal which you just can’t miss!
Programme
Saturday, March29th
1st Qualifying – 14h15
2nd Qualifying – 15h15
Final – 16h40
(starting time of the first car)