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Rally Portugal 2007.

The rally of Portugal was new to the 2007 season, the rally hasn't been part of the WRC since 2001. Sebastian Loeb finished the weekend with the overall victory; this rally marked his 31st WRC victory. Loeb dominated all three legs of the weekend mainly thanks to excellent tyre choice. The Frenchman finished ahead of Marcus Gronholm by 37.1 seconds.

Marcus Gronholm admitted after the second leg that he would be unable to catch up with Loeb in the overall classification during the third leg and drove the third leg with the aim of holding his position. Gronholm will leave this rally still holding the overall Drivers standings but with his lead reduced by two points.

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Mikko Hirvonen and Petter Solberg spent the weekend in battle for third overall. Hirvonen edged out in front on Solberg to secure his podium position and as a result keep ford ahead in the manufacturer's standings. Solberg suffered engine problems in leg three but finished the rally in fourth place this marked his best result of the 2007 season.

Dani Sordo finished the rally in a noble fifth he was unable to catch up with Solberg and was not pressured from the driver behind him. Sordo finished the weekend more the five minutes slower then the his team mate Loeb, but was overall pleased with his pace on his second gravel rally in the new Citroen C4.

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Jari-Matti Latvala finished Portugal sixth overall after avoiding any major incidents during the event's final day. Latvala did stall on the Super Special stage and lost 14 seconds but was in no immediate danger of losing his position. The Finn spoke with a lot of respect for the drivers who finished ahead of him. Latvala posted several top five stage times during the rally and was happy with his final result

Daniel Carlsson completed the rally in seventh overall after Henning Solberg suffered clutch issues during the afternoon's loop of the stages. Carlsson was driving for the first time of the 2007 season on gravel since he missed the Rally of Mexico.

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Gigi Galli finished in eighth overall claiming the final drivers point. Galli also benefited from Henning Solberg's misfortune and was able to finish the weekend without any pressure from Solberg who finished ninth overall.

Manfred Stohl finished in tenth overall. The Austrian was in the top-eight during the second leg, but he went for a spin, which made him lose his position and his chances of claiming any driver's points.

However at the end of leg three, officials gave 5 minute penalties to the six ford focus 06 drivers, Marcus Gronholm, Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala, Henning Solberg, Matthew Wilson, and Gareth MacHale when they received a reports, which stated that the rear side windows did not comply with the homologation form of the car.

This means that Sebastian Loeb leads the Drivers' championship by one point over Marcus Gronholm, but BP-Ford still lead the manufacturers standings by eight points.

The official results for the rally of Portugal are:1. Sebastian Loeb Citroen C42. Petter Solberg Subaru Impreza WRC3. Dani Sordo Citroen C44. Marcus Gronholm Ford Focus RS5. Mikko Hirvonen Ford Focus RS6. Daniel Carlsson Citroen Xsara WRC7. Gigi Galli Citroen Xsara WRC8. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford Focus WRC9. Manfred Stohl Citroen Xsara WRC10. Andreas Mikkelsen Ford Focus RS04

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