João Ramos leads the 2014 Baja Portalegre 500 after winning SS2. Driving the Toyota Hilux for the first time, the Portuguese relegated the National Champion Miguel Barbosa to the second position, while the leader of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies, Russin Vladimir Vasiliev, is third.
In a morning with several incidents, Ramos could not avoid a scare two turns from the finish line, and turned the Toyota on its right side. Even so, he ensured the morning’s fastest result. Meanwhile, Barbosa was the third on SS2, behind Vasiliev, who had a puncture on his Mini.
“The adaptation was very quick, and the crowd is fantastic,” said João Ramos. Third overall, Vasiliev is paying close attention to his rival on the World Cup, Nasser Al-Attiyah, who tried to be fast, but ended up loosing a lot of time – the Qatari had to spot five times to clean the windshield of his Ford HRX.
Regarding the fight the National Championship, Miguel Barbosa is now in front of Ricardo Porém, who lost six minutes at early stages of SS 2, but was then able to end just 27 seconds adrift from Barbosa, in 4th overall.