After seven stages have been passed through the though Rally de Portugal have claimed another vicitm and this time it was another world rally champion as Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Sébastien Ogier is forced to retire for the day after caught a second puncture on the special stage 7 – Arganil 2 this afternoon.
Ogier’s hopes of making a record breaking fifth win at the Rally de Portugal came to an early end as the eight-time champion caught his first puncture on the previous stage, the special stage 6 – Góis 2 and he didn’t have more than one spare tire with him.
As he came to the end of the stage he has already lost his third place and went down to eleventh overall come Arganil 2.
Ogier pulled over during the stage to let his teammate Elfyn Evans who is currently leading the rally to pass as the dust is quite a challenge for the visibility before Ogier continued for sometime before pulling over completely to retire.
Earlier on special stage 5 – Lousã 2, Sébastien Loeb also retired from the rally as he lost the control of his car and slided into a brick wall, which means the two French top runners are out of taking the glory.
Evans extanded his lead on Arganil 2 and he is currently leading with 7 seconds over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville while Evans teammate Kalle Rovanperä has graduated up to third followed from Ogier’s retirement and he is 7.1 seconds behind Neuville.
