The Citroën Total World Rally Team crew of Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena claimed their seventh consecutive victory on ADAC Rallye Deutschland today. The duo were in a league of their own over the asphalt roads and beat team-mates Dani Sordo/Marc Marti by 47.7 seconds. Third position was taken by François Duval/Patrick Pivato (Stobart Ford), after a close battle with Mikko Hirvonen (BP Ford).
In the FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers, maximum points for Loeb see the Frenchman overhaul Hirvonen. Loeb now holds a four point advantage over the Finn and team-mate Sordo moves into third position. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, Citroën’s one-two in Germany also gives them the advantage over Ford.
Today’s route took in two loops of two identical stages in the Mosel valley before returning to Trier for the spectacular super special stage around the streets of the city. Loeb could afford to cruise to the finish, but the Frenchman still stalled the engine twice this morning, dropping time in the process. Duval, who dominated on today’s stages last year, won four of the stages, extending his lead over Hirvonen to claim third position. For Hirvonen, a puncture on the final stage yesterday hampered his charge and the Finn was forced to settle for fourth, despite pushing hard to overhaul his rival.
All the remaining points scoring position were unchanged, although Chris Atkinson (Subaru) suffered with damper issues, and a launch control problem on stage 16 lost him more time. Jari-Matti Latvala (BP Ford) was unable to move up the leaderboard from ninth. The Finn hit a kerb this morning and the tyre came off the rim, losing him more than a minute.
The 11th round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes the crews to Hamilton, New Zealand (28-31 August).
Rallye Deutschland – Final Results (subject to final scrutineering)
| 1 |
Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena |
Citroën C4 WRC |
3 hr 26 min 19.7sec |
| 2 |
Dani Sordo/Marc Marti |
Citroën C4 WRC |
3 hr 27 min 07.4sec |
| 3 |
François Duval/Patrick Pivato |
Ford Focus RS WRC |
3 hr 27 min 39.7sec |
| 4 |
Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen |
Ford Focus RS WRC |
3 hr 27 min 49.8sec |
| 5 |
Petter Solberg/Phil Mills |
Subaru Impreza WRC |
3 hr 28 min 55.0sec |
| 6 |
Chris Atkinson/Stéphane Prévot |
Subaru Impreza WRC |
3 hr 31 min 05.6sec |
| 7 |
Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud |
Ford Focus RS WRC |
3 hr 31 min 55.9sec |
| 8 |
Urmo Aava/Kuldar Sikk |
Citroën C4 WRC |
3 hr 31 min 57.5sec |
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers (after 10 of 15 rounds)
| Sébastien Loeb (F) |
76 points |
| Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) |
72 points |
| Dani Sordo (E) |
43 points |
| Chris Atkinson (AUS) |
40 points |
| Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN) |
34 points |
| Petter Solberg (N) |
27 points |
| Henning Solberg (N) |
22 points |
| Gigi Galli (I) |
17 points |
| Matthew Wilson (GB) |
12 points |
| François Duval (B) |
11 points |
| Federico Villagra (RA) |
8 points |
| Urmo Aava (EE) |
7 points |
| Conrad Rautenbach (ZW) |
6 points |
| Andreas Mikkelsen (N) |
4 points |
| Toni Gardemeister (FIN) |
3 points |
| Matti Rantanen (FIN) |
2 points |
| Jean Marie Cuoq (F) |
2 points |
| Per-Gunnar Andersson (S) |
1 points |
| Andreas Aigner (A) |
1 point |
| Sébastien Ogier (F) |
1 point |
| Juho Hanninen (FIN) |
1 point |
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers (after 10 of 15 rounds)
| Citroën Total World Rally Team |
123 points |
| BP-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team |
115 points |
| Subaru World Rally Team |
69 points |
| Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team |
51 points |
| Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team |
19 points |
| Suzuki World Rally Team |
13 points |