Despite the injury to his shoulder, the pilot finished the second day amongst the Top Ten

After finishing two stages of the New Zealand Rally – sixth race of the Production World Rally Championship (PWRC), - the Red Bull Rally Team pilot occupies 8th position in the general Production classification. A very encouraging result for Bernardo Sousa who, despite the injury to his shoulder and his lack of experience in the New Zealand sections, has managed to earn a place on the classification table.

At one day away from the end of the New Zealand Rally – sixth stage of the Production World Rally Championship (PWRC) – Bernardo Sousa occupies 8th position in the Production classification. The morning gained impetus for the Madeiran pilot, who admits that his lack of knowledge of the track had been his worst enemy today.  After 16th time in the first section of the day, he gained confidence and finished the four sections of the morning period 12th, 10th and 8th, respectively. During the afternoon, he reduced the pace slightly (11th and 10th), but even so he managed to gain five places in the general classification of the race where he is now 22nd amongst 51 pilots.

“I think the final result of the day is good but I’d like to have achieved better times. That’s where lack of experience in these sections is obvious”, says Bernardo Sousa, stressing that his absence from competitions for almost two months has also had some influence on his driving. “I’ve had to get used to the pace of the race again and I feel that my absence and shoulder injury make me hang back more than usual”, he admits. “The injury recovery programme is going well but I know I’m not one hundred percent fit and this affects my driving”, explains the Red Bull Rally Team pilot, who has felt some pain in his shoulder.

With only five “specials” to go, Bernardo Sousa, who has always counted on the precious help of his navigator, Jorge Carvalho, now only thinks of finishing the race. “Tomorrow, we have to face two more new sections that we have to drive round twice and this should make things a bit easier because we will already know what to expect the second time. We aim to continue to do a good job but we’re not going to attack or worry about the final classification. More important is finishing another race”, guarantees the pilot who experienced some problems today with the gear box of his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX, which were solved in the meantime.


Tomorrow, (early evening here in Portugal) the third and last stage will have five “special” sections and a total of 85.04km.

PWRC CLASSIFICATION (after the 2nd stage)

1st M. Prokop (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX), 3h07m17.8s; 

2nd P. Sandell (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX), at 1m18.8s;

3rd M. Rauam (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX), at 1m33.5s; (…)

8th Bernardo Sousa (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX), at 6m29.5s.