Alexandre Camacho, winner of seven of the eleven Special Stages already fought, is standing ahead in Rally Vinho Madeira after accomplishing Leg 1. The Skoda Fabia R5 driver stepped ahead of the standing in today’s first timed special stage, but lost the leadership, for a moment, at the end of the 3.rd section with an attack by “Pepe” Lopez under the dense fog that marked the dispute in Palheiro Ferreiro 2.

                The Spaniard has been confirming in Madeira his status as one of the neighbouring country’s fastest drivers of our times and has been the driver who has presented the most competition to the leader. In the 60.th edition of this rally, organized by Club Sports of Madeira, the pace has been quite high and many have been the timed stage records to fall. These two drivers look like that they are, currently, the only ones who may dispute the triumph, also because the current difference between them two, of 8.3 seconds, may be easily diminished in the coming Leg 2, tomorrow.

Following the top two is a duo of drivers, that of Bruno Magalhães and Giandomenico Basso, who, if keeping the lively scenery shown so far, will dispute the lowest rank at the podium. Even though he is interested in progressing in the Portuguese Rally Championship, competition in which he is the top ranked driver, Magalhães has showed an obvious rise at the wheel of his reconditioned Hyundai i20 R5. Giandomenico Basso has been complaining about the tune of his Skoda Fabia R5 provided by Delta Rally.

                Miguel Nunes improved in the special stages on the North of the island, but is still in fifth place, a somehow tranquil standing, far from the drivers who precede and succeed him in the general standings.  José Pedro Fontes is sixth, but he is still trying to prevent the attacks coming from João Silva. After the amount of time lost with the fog on the Special Stage 5, he has been recovering positions.   Another recovering driver is Pedro Paixão, tenth, who lost around 1 minute and 20 seconds at the opening stage this Friday and has already been the best in one of the timed stages. Armindo Araujo and Miguel Barbosa, who have paired their pace with the conquering of points for the National Championship, hold the eighth and ninth places.