Red Bull Rally Team pilot was the best Portuguese competitor

What seemed to be a perfect day ended badly due to a mechanical fault. After racing amongst the Top 10 and complying with the objective proposed, the pilot of the Red Bull Rally Team ended up with a complicated “special” final race. The radiator of his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX was to blame.

A problem with the radiator of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX spoilt the end of Bernardo Sousa’s day. Just when he was in 8th place overall, the Madeiran pilot broke the fan and ended up by damaging the radiator. A situation that made him lose a lot of time in the sixth and last special qualifying race of the day in São Brás de Alportel, which ended up with his withdrawal.

“After a perfect day, this was almost like dying on the beach. We were continuously climbing to a better position overall, driving calmly without taking too many risks with the car’s mechanics in mind”, says Bernardo, explaining that it was during the connecting section at the end of the “special” race that the car stopped responding.

 

“We even tried to start the car up again but it wouldn’t respond”, he says. “When we went through a stream the second time, the fans broke and we ended up piercing the radiator”, explains Bernardo. In the end, we had to have the car towed to the pits where the Madeiran pilot and his navigator, Carlos Magalhães are both assessing the real damage done to the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX along with the mechanics.

 

“We still don’t know if the problem can be solved because we don’t know to what extent the engine has been affected. But I’m sure that tomorrow we’ll be on the road again and everything will run smoothly. I even said to the mechanics that tomorrow is speeding day”, the pilot concludes, full of determination to win.

Tomorrow is the second and last stage of the Portuguese Rally, with a total of 130.70 km against the clock, divided up into six special qualifying races.

Classification after the 1st stage: 1st L.Rossetti (1h26m06.5s); 2nd N.Vouilloz (1h26m08.9s); 3rd J.Kopecky (1h26m45.9s); (...) 13th Bernardo Sousa (1h30m51.7s).