BEST PORTUGUESE FINISH FOR STOBART’S WILSON

Britain’s Matthew Wilson scored his best ever Portuguese result this weekend after he and fellow Cumbrian Scott Martin finished fifth overall in their M-Sport Stobart run Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

The 24-year-old’s previous best finish at Rally de Portugal was sixth and this weekend’s result is Wilson’s first top-five finish since last year’s Jordan Rally, proving that Britain’s top WRC driver is adapting well to driving Ford’s new Fiesta RS WRC.

Throughout Friday’s repeat loop of three stages totalling 132.41 km, Wilson and team-mate Henning Solberg battled it out for fifth position and only 4.7 seconds separated the Fiesta RS WRC team-mates as Solberg held fifth at the end of the day.

However, after a quick time on Saturday’s opening stage, Wilson moved up to fifth – 7.5 seconds ahead of his team-mate. Then on Stage 11, Solberg’s Fiesta RS WRC suffered power steering issues which was closely followed by a puncture on Stage 12, losing the Norwegian three minutes and widening the gap between the two drivers.

Despite a difficult afternoon, Solberg and co-driver Ilka Minor battled on and pulled into the end of a difficult second day sixth overall. Wilson moved further up the WRC leaderboard and into a career-best fourth place when Mikko Hirvonen suffered problems with rear suspension on the day’s closing 22.56 km stage. Wilson finished fourth at 2007’s Rally Japan but fourth place would be the best ever result with current co-driver Scott Martin. By the end of the second day, the Briton was just over 60 seconds from a podium position.

Sunday proved relatively trouble-free for Wilson and a cautious driving approach consolidated Wilson’s fifth place finish. Disaster struck for Solberg on Sunday’s penultimate stage when the Norwegian encountered problems with his turbo, dropping him from sixth place and down into ninth overall.

Mads Østberg was looking to secure his third consecutive top-five result in Portugal. However, during Thursday evening's Super Special in Lisbon, the 23-year-old tore the front right wheel off his Fiesta RS WRC after an impact. The loose wheel hit a spectator in the crowd, who was taken to hospital for precautionary checks, but was later released with no reported injuries. Østberg and co-driver Jonas Andersson were dealt another dose of bad luck when their car suffered from a broken gearbox 300m into Friday’s opening stage, forcing the disappointed duo to retire.

The Scandinavian pairing returned to the rally on Saturday morning where they set two top-five stage times but encountered more bad luck when they suffered from power steering problems on Stage 11 and elected to retire. Østberg returned to the rally on Sunday to try and gain as much experience in the Fiesta RS WRC as possible ahead of Jordan Rally. The Norwegian battled back, showing an incredible show of speed including a second-fastest time on Stage 16 to finish 31st overall.

Click here to read M-Sport Stobart Ford team drivers' quotes from WRC Portugal.