The azorian Ricardo Moura, in Ford Fiesta R5, is the first leader of the rally, after winning the first stage (Avenida do Mar) in a time of 1:39.6, leaving Bruno Magalhães half a second away. Carlos Vieira was the third only three tenths of a second behind.
The fourth place went to the first Porsche in the race, Romain Dumas, who did 1:40.6.
As expected, the time differences were very small, as no participant had any meaningful problem. The top 18 places are in a 10 seconds gap.
At 19h30, will take place the first Stage of RVM 2016 - Avenida do Mar.
It is just 2.18km long and runs through an area in the city center. Above all, it is a show that brings the rally to all the Funchal fans. The fastest will be the first leader of the event, but the time gaps will be narrow. Only tomorrow will we be able to see who really are the fastest ones.
The official start of Rali Vinho Madeira took place this afternoon, in Avenida Arriaga, close to the social office of Club Sports Madeira, organizer of the event.
The 55 drivers entered in the 57th edition of RVM went through the poduim, to the admiring gaze and cheering of the large croud that attended this moment.
In 2016 edition of Rali Vinho Madeira, Service Park comes back to Avenida Sá Carneiro.
While the official start of the race is taking place in Avenida Arriaga and not long before the Avenida do Mar super stage, teams prepare the location to receive cars and drivers during the next days.
Madeiran codriver Vítor Calado meets again the National Championship driver Miguel Campos. They had already been in RVM in 2014 and this year come back to the regional roads with a Skoda Fabia R5.
According to the rules, at 13h30 was approved the starting list of RVM. All the entered drivers were accepted.
The only change is the replacement of the codriver in car 21: Nuno Rodrigues Silva instead of Diogo Correia.