There is no stopping the man from France. It was Sebastien Loeb's 51 World rally win, equaling the number of wins of his compatriot Alain Prost, and a favourite number among French people. He overcame the special challenge of running first car on the road on the very slippery gravel tracks in Portugal, heading Mikko Hirvonen once again. Loeb, "I was on the limit nearly all the rally. The stages here are so tricky you never know where to brake or where to place your car in the corners." Happily for him it all came good, once again. The rally was not however a foregone conclusion. Henning Solberg led after the opening Superspecial. When the rally arrived on the orthodox stages Loeb made a little error on the very first stage which let Jari-Matti Latvala, who was running seventh car on the road, take the lead. Latvala made the most of his running place but suffered a monumental accident from which he was lucky to escape unscathed. Dani Sordo was now ahead, but this only lasted for one stage before he copied his team leader's mistake when the same stage was run the second time. Hirvonen was ahead but it meant for the second day he would be opening the stages and Loeb, in fourth place, was quite content with that position. On stage nine of the rally Loeb went ahead and stayed there to the finish. He started the final day first car on the road, actually an advantage because of the very penetrating dust which slowed the cars behind. It all worked out well, a fair win with no need for the anticipated tactics, and an appalling blow to the confidence of Latvala, retiring from the rally on his birthday. When will things go right again for the 24 year old? And when will life go smoothly again for Ford? BP Ford are now 24 points behind their rivals Citroen Total in the Makes' series and the season is already one third over...

The star of the show was Marcus Gronholm, making his first appearance in a rally car in the 17 months since he ended his official career at the 2007 Wales Rally GB. He drove the original prototype Subaru Impreza S14, now developed by Prodrive with shock absorbers from the Ohlins company, and pristine - prepared in the colours of the Turismo de Portugal authority, sponsors of the rally. Gronholm was lying second overall on the first day before he then crashed on the second day and retired. This was an encouragement for Prodrive who had suffered so many earlier disappointments with their latest world rally car design. Petter Solberg once again drove the eight year old Citroen Xsara WRC and impressed, settling in to fourth place behind the two official Citroens and the remaining works BP Ford.

Conrad Rautenbach was positioned to finish the best Citroen Junior Team driver, after Sebastien Ogier went off the road on the second day and when Evgeniy Novikov did the same on the final day. Then came reports that eighth placed Rautenbach had also gone off at the same place, his C4 caught fire and was burned out. One of the happiest people on the planet throughout the event was Henning Solberg. On the Superspecial stage at the very start of the rally, he made best time on this stage, run on a tarmac surface, when drivers had to use gravel tyres. "Me, winning a stage on tarmac! And what's more, I even beat Loeb!" It kept him grinning all rally, then when the event came back to the stadium for a superspecial at the end - he posted fastest time once again! Henning struggled a bit during the rally proper in sixth place behind his Stobart teammate Matthew Wilson. Wilson then went off the road on the final gravel stage, got back on the road again but was forced to stop with clutch failure. Novikov's misfortune brought a remarkable achievement for Norway. The finishing order was Petter, Henning and then Mads Ostberg, in 4th, 5th and 6th.

The hard dusty tracks of southern Portugal created devastating havoc for the drivers. It had already been dusty during pre-rally recce and drivers had endless stories of making bad pacenotes because they did not have a clear sight of the stages beforehand. The dust became particularly bad for the competitors on the final day of the rally, in the still air of Sunday morning, the one disappointing factor in a most enjoyable event, which was already full of interest even before the FIA President Max Mosley had issued policy statements about the future of the sport in mid event .

It was a bad event for the Super 2000s in the PCWRC category. Bernardo Sousa and Jaromir Tarabus both rolled their Fiats at the pre-event Shakedown and could not start the rally proper. Championship favourite Patrik Sandell rolled and retired, while Guest entry Bruno Magalhaes was leading the category before his water pump failed and the engine was damaged. Al Attiyah took over the lead before he stopped with a broken steering arm which let local driver Armindo Araujo go ahead. Patrik Flodin was catching him fast. Flodin went into the lead but then went off the road and retired, leaving the Araujo unchallenged. Eyvind Brynildsen had transmission troubles but held on to second place, ahead of Martin Prokop who was delayed with a broken brake disc and differential problem. Al Attiyah fought back to finish fourth. Gaurav Gill was also forced to miss five stages by a broken steering arm.

Also driving Group N cars were the five Pirelli Star Drivers, four of whom went off the road during the course of the event, leaving the South African Jon Williams as the only driver to have a clear run and finish with an undamaged car. "It was amazing for me. The first time in a turbo rally car, first time in a left-hand drive car, my first rally driving on the "wrong" side of the road, my first rally for a long time without a sequential gearshift. It paid off to go carefully!" Nic Thomas' car was too badly damaged and he was forced to retire but the others qualified as finishers. Jarkko Nikara showed his speed on stage eight when he was fastest of all the Group N competitors.

Seven cars started the Junior category and Michal Kosciuszko (Suzuki Swift S1600) walked away with a win, leading through all three days on the gravel tracks and being able to drive more and more cautiously all the way. Kevin Abbring came second at the wheel of his Renault Clio R3, fitted with a new engine, but the fastest Renault driver was Alessandro Bettega, who had to stop on day two after a misunderstanding at a refuelling point. Yoann Bonato (Suzuki S1600) started strongly but crashed on day two, injuring a Spanish photographer. Clio R3 driver Luca Griotti had been up to third but lost time when he blocked the road after crashing at a water crossing. Drivers in the International Fiesta Sport trophy had a success: Craig Breen finished 25th overall highest place for anyone in the series, and one of the three drivers in the Abu Dhabi Junior team Ahmed Al Mansoori reached the finish, on only his second ever rally.

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