1994 World Rally Champion Didier Auriol has made his debut on the IRC with a Grande Punto today. Auriol had been feeling unwell at the rally start yesterday, but showed his star quality on the stages today.

François Duval in a strong third place leads the Abarth challenge at the end of the opening day of the Vodafone Rally de Portugal which saw the factory Abarth entries hitting major problems and former champion Didier Auriol turning back the clock in impressive style on his debut in the Italian Super2000 machine.

At the front there was an intense battle in which the lead changed at the end of every one of today’s seven stages and Luca Rossetti finished the day at the top of the timesheets. Local hero Bruno Magalhaes was also in contention for the lead until he had a high-speed roll in the morning, from which his Peugeot emerged relatively undamaged. In the afternoon, the lead oscillated between Rossetti and Peugeot Belgium driver Nicolas Vouilloz, with the Italian claiming the overnight advantage by just 2.4 seconds.

Francois Duval climbed up to third in his privately-run Abarth Grande Punto, despite the disadvantage of running first on the road and sweeping the surfaces clean for everybody else behind him. He was just ahead of Czech driver Jan Kopecky in a Peugeot and the 1994 World Rally Champion Didier Auriol, making his debut on the IRC with a Grande Punto. Auriol had been feeling unwell at the rally start yesterday, but showed his star quality on the stages today.

The tight and twisty gravel stages of Portugal are well-known as a classically technical challenge, and they were made even harder in the afternoon by the arrival of a few drops of rain. With the pace at the front so hectic, it was inevitable that there would be a number of high-profile victims.

The first major retirement was Anton Alén, who went out with a clutch failure on his Abarth Grande Punto just five kilometres into the opening stage. His team mate Giandomenico Basso was also unlucky: he ends day one in the top 10, but had to stop on one of the stages in the afternoon in order to clean a mixture of sand and condensation off the inside of his windscreen. Other retirements included Freddy Loix, who ran out of spare wheels on his Peugeot after encountering a series of punctures on the second run through the stages in the afternoon. Manfred Stohl (Peugeot) was also the victim of a puncture, which may have been caused by a broken wheel, while Dani Sola (Abarth) had an intermittent engine misfire.

The IRC 2WD Cup is currently led by Marco Cavigioli in a Fiat Grande Punto diesel, who is lying 20th overall. The Italian said: “This is just an interim car for me as I will have a new car for the next round in Ypres, but it is interesting to drive and very definitely a good experience for me.”

Rossetti, who faces another six special stages before the finish tomorrow afternoon at 18:10 (local time), commented: “I’m going to be first on the road tomorrow, so I’m hoping for rain as that will minimise the disadvantage. But even if it doesn’t rain, I’m happy enough as it means I can follow the tracks of Marcus Gronholm in the zero car – and it doesn’t happen every day that you have a two-time World Champion showing you the way...”