Flooding halted yesterday’s opening day of recce at Rally de Portugal with sections of the route impassable after torrential rain.

Almost 60mm of rain deluged the Algarve region and the Ourique and Santana da Serra stages were worst affected. Recce cars had to be towed out of flash floods and as rain continued to fall, organisers cancelled practice in those two tests.

Volkswagen’s Jari-Matti Latvala was one of many drivers affected by water which was up to bonnet level in places.

“The rain will definitely harm the roads, which is a shame as they appear to be in very good condition - the organisers have done a lot of work on them. But we know that once the rain stops, the roads dry out very quickly so I hope that we will have a dry weekend for the rally,” he said.

Organisers revised today’s recce schedule to allow competitors to practise the stages they missed ahead of this afternoon’s shakedown.

More rain is forecast today, but it is not expected to be as heavy as yesterday. The outlook for the rally itself is better, with less rain, high temperatures and more sunshine.

Photographs courtesy of Andre Lavadinho.

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