The Red Bull Rally Team made a satisfactory start to the Portugal Rally today. Andreas Aigner (Aut)/Klaus Wicha (Ger) and Bernardo Sousa (POR)/Carlos Magalhaes (POR) both performed moderately in their Mitsubishi EVO IXs to stay in touch with the top.

Today’s Super Stage was not exactly set alight by the Mitsubishi-driving Red Bull racers. Navigating a narrow and twisty city circuit with gravel tyres was admittedly no easy task. In the end Aigner fell 5.2 seconds behind Italian leader Luca Rossetti (Peugeot S2000) and Sousa dropped 5.0 seconds back.

The rally will continue tomorrow with six special stages scheduled. SS2 starts at 9:50 am.

Team boss Raimund Baumschlager:  “I took a quiet look around the stages today and the Super 2000 cars had a bigger advantage than I thought. We got a taste of possible things to come at this afternoon’s Super Stage.”

Andreas Aigner: “I took it really easy through the city course as I didn’t want to risk anything. Things will get going for real tomorrow and we face some tough work.”

Bernardo Sousa: “That was a truly fantastic feeling racing in front of so many of my compatriots. I am raring to get going tomorrow!”