Bad weather halts Rally of Portugal

The event is expected to restart in the next hour, with the delay caused by the flooding of a river crossing after the sixth stage of the event. The day's final stage has been cancelled. Many crews at the back of the field have been re-routed away from the river and directly back to service.

An additional headache for the organisers is a refuel which was situated after the river crossing. Unable to reach the refuelling point, some of the cars would have run out of petrol before arriving back on the Algarve. In order to avoid this, a four-wheel drive vehicle has been sent into the area with fuel tanks and a hand pump to dispense fuel and keep the event running.

A spokesman for the rally said: "We will not let the leading cars go out again until we have all the cars back in from the first loop of stages."

There had been some concern that all three of the afternoon's stages might have been lost, but the spokesman said: "This is very unlikely. Because we have cancelled the final stage, we have enough time to get the cars out and running on the next two stages."

The re-run Tavira and Alcarias stages are still shrouded in fog and rain. The river crossing after Alcarias and before the Sao Bras de Alportel test is still too deep to cross, which is why the final stage has been cancelled.

The spokesman added: "These conditions have been very difficult and they continue to be so, but we will have the event running again very soon."

When the event is running, Citroen's Mikko Hirvonen will lead the event from private Ford driver Mads Ostberg.