The battle for victory in the Rallye de Portugal, the third round of the FIA World Rally Championship, has raged today as both Tommi Makinen and Carlos Sainz fight for outright supremacy. The Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart driver, and co-driver Risto Mannisenmaki, have however never lost the lead they established on stage 4 and have a 13 second advantage over the Spanish Ford driver. Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets held a comfortable fifth position until they were forced into a disappointing retirement.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart T. Makinen / R. Mannisenmaki

Mitsubishi Motors drivers also dominate the leaderboard in the Group N production car class. Argentina’s Marcos Ligato has the advantage in his Lancer Evolution, with Austrian reigning World Champion Manfred Stohl in second place in a Carisma GT.

Today’s nine scheduled stages (eight run) and 154 competitive kilometres have taken the crews to the southwest of Santa Maria da Feira and into the famous Arganil stages. Conditions have, essentially, been the same as yesterday with pouring rain and swirling fog reducing visibility to less than 20 metres at times. However, with a much harder base, these stages have provided slightly more grip, but standing water in deep rocky ruts have ensured conditions remained treacherous. Rain has not been a deterrent for the thousands of spectators though and, despite some organisational problems throughout the day, they have been treated to world-class action.

Tommi Makinen and Risto Mannisenmaki have very much been the pace-setters, the Finnish Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution crew on a charge from the outset, determined to defend their overnight lead. They set fastest time on no fewer than four of the eight stages, despite constant threats to their concentration with frustrating organisation, weather and spectator car problems.

"Everything is going quite well but I backed off a bit too much on the last stage of the day and Carlos did a much better time than us", commented Tommi. "With only 13 seconds and three more stages it will still be difficult tomorrow. It’s been a hard two days, but in the closing few kilometres I try to win. Of course we have to go flat out, but with the conditions as they are, we must be careful and make no mistakes".

Mitsubishi Carisma GT Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart F. Loix / S. Smeets

Team-mates Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets had been within the top six on all today’s stages to climb into fifth position before being forced into retirement with a suspected clutch failure. "We don’t know exactly what happened", said Freddy. "The car was going very well until the clutch started slipping in stage 14, and then in the middle of stage 15, after a jump, we just lost all drive. It was going well up until that point, I was running fifth and of course I’m very disappointed. The car was perfect till then, the confidence is getting better and better and we hope to keep this level".

Adding to the drivers’ comments, Marlboro Mitsubishi Ralliart team manager George Donaldson said: "It’s been another tough day and being first car - effectively opening the roads - can always cause some problems. But, in these bizarre conditions, Tommi has remained focused and in charge of the pace".

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Gr.N M. Ligato / R. Garcia