Zoom Albuquerque put on a show for the Rally Portugal crowd

The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport and A1 Team Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque made a guest appearance at the opening special stage of the Rally of Portugal today, the fourth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship.

This is the first of several spectacular events involving Albuquerque and the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car he will race in next week's A1GP Algarve event in Portugal from 10–12 April.

Fans had their first taste of the A1GP car in action at the Estadio Algarve this afternoon when the 23-year-old drove around the super special stage venue in front of his home fans.

As well as giving the crowd a chance to get up close to the A1GP car in the exhibition area, A1 Team Portugal's star driver took time out to meet and greet the fans for autographs and photos ahead of his home event next weekend.

"The crowd seemed to enjoy it," said Albuquerque. "They loved the A1GP car – especially as it's the Portuguese car. I have been to watch the rally here before with friends but this time it was different as I was out on the circuit myself."

"All crowds like to see some burnouts with smoke coming off the tyres and hear the engine noise so it was nice to give them that. I always like to do donuts in the car but it's not as easy as it seems as you need to control the throttle to keep the car in the tight space, but when you do it's a good show," he added.

"I felt much closer to the people in the stadium so I could interact with them more," Albuquerque shared. "The people next to me where signalling for more spins. I couldn't hear them, but I could see on their faces that they were going crazy. I really enjoyed being so close to the fans."

After taking a year off in 2008, the Rally Portugal event has returned to the calendar and will be the first pure gravel rally of the WRC's 2009 season. The event is again based at Estadio Algarve, which houses the super special stage that opened the event this evening and will close it on Sunday afternoon.

Albuquerque will drive the A1GP Powered by Ferrari car on the same stage for a final time on Sunday 5 April, ahead of the rally's closing stage.

D.B. © CAPSIS International