Ogier Extends Lead, Big Drama Behind - [ Day 2 ] Rally de Portugal | WRC - 2013

Day 2 of Rally Portugal rained some big time retirements, with Citroen's Dani Sordo & Qatar M-Sport's Thierry Neuville crashing out on the opening stage, SS6 [Santana de Serra 1, 31.2 km] after each of them hitting a tree.

Hard luck for Thierry Neuville - Crashed out @ SS6

Their retirements sounded boon for Ogier's team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala VW Polo R WRC driver who moved up to 2nd, and so did the Citroen's top driver, Mikko Hirvonen - who moved up to 3rd overall immediately by the end of SS6.

Despite being the day's stages opener, QMWRT 's driver, Mads Ostberg & VW Motorsport 's 3rd car pilot, Andreas Mikkelsen finished 4th & 6th quickest in the opening stage of the day.

Andreas Mikkelsen / Mikko Markkula

Hard Pushing - Mads Ostberg

Ogier, by mid-day was showing signs of fatigue of his battle against the flu, which he battled few days before the rally. If that wasn't a headline, we should learn that Latvala's charging pace & also winning the two opening stages of the day and he surely was inching towards the top spot - but still not enough!

Ogier managed to keep his lead and energy charged to win the rest of the day's stages to make a healthy 34.8 s lead to his team-mate Latvala in second, by the end of SS11.