News

Loeb extends World Rally Championship dominance after win in Germany

French pairing Sébastien Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena continue to dominant this year’s FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) season with a 51 second winning margin in the weekend’s ninth round on the tarmac roads of ADAC Rallye Deutschland.

Loeb was never headed during the three days of competition covering 407 kilometres around Trier in Germany, staying comfortably clear of team-mates Dani Sordo and new co-driver Diego Vallejo in second. Third was the Citroen Junior Team pairing of Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia to complete a three-strong Citroen C4 podium line-up.

Loeb’s 59th WRC round victory – and his eighth consecutive German win – further extends the six-time world champion’s lead for this year’s drivers’ title with four rounds still to run. Loeb currently has 191 points, 59 ahead of second-placed Ogier with Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala in third with 117 points.

Loeb, age 36, said: “It’s always a great pleasure to win here. I love driving the C4 WRC on asphalt and it’s all the more motivating when you’re in front of such a large, enthusiastic crowd! Once again I was able to count on a perfect, quick and reliable car that really got the best out of the tyres. This is my fifth win in 2010 and brings me one step closer to my ultimate aim – my seventh world title on the trot.”
 
Rallye Deutschland covered 19 stages over massively varied terrain that seemed perfectly suited to Loeb and his Citroen. Fellow Citroen driver and privateer Petter Solberg rued a puncture in the opening stage of the rally, costing him three minutes, but the popular former world champ climbed back through the field to finish fifth overall, behind the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team’s Latvala.

Latvala had held third for virtually the entire opening day and extended his advantage over closest rival Ogier on Saturday morning until a spin on the first pass over Panzerplatte cost Latvala 20 seconds and one overall position. The solid fourth place for Latvala showed a new-found confidence on tarmac for the winner of the recent Finnish WRC event. “I enjoyed the weekend and I'm really pleased with my performance. This is the hardest asphalt rally of the year and I was afraid of it, but now I'm not.”

Latvala’s team-mate Mikko Hirvonen suffered from gearbox issues and was unable to complete the opening day in his Ford Focus RS WRC. Sordo’s second place moved the Spaniard into fifth place on the drivers’ championship leader-board and pushed Hirvonen back to sixth.

Ford’s result was boosted with Brit Matthew Wilson finishing as the second Ford in the top six. Wilson had a rally-long battle former Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen in the second Citroen Junior Team entry and kept Raikkonen, a rally rookie, in seventh place. The top ten was rounded out by Ford’s Khalid Al Qassimi, Dutch privateer Mark Van Eldik and best of the Super 2000 World Rally Championship contenders Patrik Sandell.

Rallye Deutschland also counts as a round of the Super 2000, Production and Junior World Rally Championships.

Three former JWRC Champions fought for the SWRC round win with Sweden’s Patrik Sandell in the Skoda Fabia ultimately sealing victory from Czech driver Martin Prokop in a Ford Fiesta and Swede P-G Andersson in another Skoda Fabia third.

The JWRC category was expected to provide equally intense competition, yet Dutch Citroen driver Hans Weijs Jnr won this class by over five minutes.

The PWRC category featured Kiwis Hayden Paddon and John Kennard who were competing in one of their scheduled Pirelli Star Driver events and chasing PWRC points.

Reigning PWRC champion Armindo Araújo, from Portugal, led this class from the opening stage to scoop his second victory of the season after clocking nine stage wins in his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X. Araújo increased his PWRC series lead over second-placed Patrik Flodin to 18 points.

Paddon and Kennard finished a highly commendable second place in the PWRC class and again best of their Pirelli Star Driver team-mates. Paddon’s success was particularly notable as the former double New Zealand rally champion had never driven an all-tarmac rally event before. His German result sealed three PWRC podium finishes from three events and moved the Kiwi to within seven points of Flodin in the overall PWRC standings.

The WRC teams, along with PWRC and SWRC competitors, head to Rally Japan next. The long-running Asian rally runs from 9 to 12 September.

Rallye Deutschland – Final Results
1, Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena, France, Citroën C4 WRC, 3 hr 59 min 38.3sec
2, Dani Sordo/Diego Vallejo, Spain, Citroën C4 WRC, 4 hr 00 min 29.6sec
3, Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia, France, Citroën C4 WRC, 4 hr 01 min 51.6sec
4, Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila, Finland, Ford Focus RS WRC, 4 hr 02 min 12.2sec
5, Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson, Norway, Citroën C4 WRC, 4 hr 06 min 26.0sec
6, Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin, Britain, Ford Focus RS WRC, 4 hr 08 min 25.0sec
7, Kimi Räikkönen/Kaj Lindström, Finland, Citroën C4 WRC, 4 hr 08 min 28.8sec
8, Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr, UAE, Ford Focus RS WRC, 4 hr 17 min 14.8sec
9, Mark van Eldik/Robin Buysmans, Netherlands, Subaru Impreza WRC, 4 hr 17 min 31.3sec
10, Patrik Sandell/Emil Axelsson, Sweden, Skoda Fabia S2000, 4 hr 17 min 37.1sec

FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 9 of 13 rounds)
1, Sébastien Loeb, 191 pts
2, Sébastien Ogier, 133 pts
3, Jari-Matti Latvala, 117 pts
4, Petter Solberg, 100 pts
5, Dani Sordo, 95 pts

FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 9 of 13 rounds)
1, Citroen Total, 308 pts
2, BP Ford Abu Dhabi, 222 pts
3, Citroen Junior, 168 pts
4, Stobart M-Sport Ford, 118 pts
5, Munchi's Ford, 40pts

FIA Production World Rally Championship for Drivers
1, Armindo Araújo (PRT) Mitsubishi, 83 pts
2, Patrik Flodin (SWE) Subaru, 65 pts
3, Hayden Paddon (NZL) Mitsubishi, 58 pts
4, Toshi Arai (JPN) Subaru, 38 pts
5 40 Ott Tänak (EST) Mitsubishi, 35 pts