Juho Hänninen has taken the lead of Sata Rallye Açores after beating rival Bruno Magalhães on stage 15, the 21.94-kilometre Tronqueira run. But while the Škoda Motorsport driver celebrated there was despair for Peugeot Sport Portugal’s Magalhães (pictured) who completed the stage with fluid leaking from his car.
He is now 18 seconds behind Hänninen and only 2.6s in front of third-placed Jan Kopecký with one stage remaining, the two-kilometre Grupo Marques superspecial, before service.
Bernardo Sousa won the stage, his first in the IRC, by an impressive 4.4s in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta.
Overall positions after SS15:
1) Juho Hänninen +1h53m16.2s
2) Bruno Magalhães +18.0s
3) Jan Kopecký +20.6s
4) Kris Meeke +1m10.9s
5) Andreas Mikkelsen +1m21.9s
6) Bernardo Sousa +2m25.3s
– Credit: www.ircseries.com