ADAC Rallye Deutschland was inducted into the WRC in the year 2002, and this year the German event will began at the Cologne city. The ev...
ADAC Rallye Deutschland was inducted into the WRC in the year 2002, and this year the German event will began at the Cologne city. The event will began after a presentation of the championship's cars and drivers at Roncalliplatz, with Cologne cathedral providing a stunning backdrop.
This year's prime attraction is the new home manufacturer, Volkswagen entry into the top level rallying, under the banner Volkswagen Motorsport. Fielding three VW Polo R WRC's, they want to win their home event, with the help of their two tarmac experts, Sebastien Ogier & Jari-Matti Latvala.With a grand ceremonial flag-off, ADAC Rallye Deutschland heads south towards its base city of Trier in Germany's wine-making Mosel district. The four days of rally in Germany, being an asphalt rally has features like no other with three different types of sealed surfaces used, especially in the last three days of the rally.
From its year of inclusion into the top level of rallying, the ADAC Rallye Deutschland was been dominated by Sebastien Loeb till 2012, except for in 2011 when he had a puncture and his then-team-mate Sebastien Ogier had broken the series. This year with Loeb's absence the rally is open for the other tarmac experts.
The spectator special Circus Maximus superspecial stage, which used to runs through the centre of Trier, which had also marked the scene of ex-WRC & Grand Prix driver Kimi Raikkonen’s first stage victory back in 2010. However, this has been taken off this year means only the special stages are for at offer.However, the specialty of this rally is the Arena Panzerplatte stage in the military training area at Baumholder. It is basically concrete paved roads, with a marathon 41+km stage and not to forget to mention the car-wrecking hinkelstein's that line at most part of this stage. It was originally installed to stop war tanks to go off the road during training excercise, and if they can stop and even damage tanks means the WRC cars stand no chance in its way! If this sounds dreadful to rally on, then there are 14 other stages which many run through the vineyards alongside the Moselle river providing a spectacular view.
I guess, that is enough for an intro, and head directly to the event details!
Day 1 - Thursday, 22nd August
Opening day of ADAC Rallye Deutschland [i.e., Rally Germany as most of us know] being the first of the proper tarmac rally of the WRC season, was also the home event of Volkswagen Motorsport. The grand ceremonial flag off was held in the city of Cologne in front of the historic Cathedral, late in the afternoon. 
Evening was the time for the real action and it began with SS1, where Sebastien Ogier started the rally and also took the stage win, nearly 5s ahead of his team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala. Qatar M-Sport's Thierry Neuville showed his pace here as he did in Finland and was third quickest. Sordo & Mikko, the Citroen boys finished in 4th and 5th respectively. Almost everyone experienced lack of grip and complained of understeer, however the Russian Evgeny Novikov crashed in the stage and thus ended his rally at the beginning on the opening day.The brilliant itinerary accommodated SS2 en-route [a few kilometers down the road from the end of SS1], which ended almost near to the Service Park in Trier, Germany. The stage results were virtually the same of the first one and it just parted the gap with the top 5.
Today's stages were mostly over the plains, however tomorrow's [Friday] action shifts to the tight and fast roads around the vineyard. It is surely going to be a good fight with the VW boys and the tarmac loving drivers.
| Pos | No | Driver | Time | Diff / Prev | Diff / 1st | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 8 | S. OGIER | 19:33.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 2. | 7 | J. LATVALA | 19:38.9 | +5.7 | +5.7 | |
| 3. | 11 | T. NEUVILLE | 19:45.9 | +7.0 | +12.7 | |
| 4. | 3 | D. SORDO | 19:53.7 | +7.8 | +20.5 | |
| 5. | 2 | M. HIRVONEN | 19:58.9 | +5.2 | +25.7 |
Day 2 - Friday, 23rd August
Sebastien Ogier - the overnight leader, lead the pack on day 2 of ADAC Rally Deutschland, as the event moved towards the vineyard roads on the north-eastern country side of the Trier, Germany. Although it rained in the morning on the stages, it dried up considerably soon after sometime.
As always a calm and confident looking Ogier took the day's first stage start, about 5km into the SS3 under-estimates the wetness lurking right at the braking point, skids off the road into a ditch, hitting a stepped surface in the process and damages his left-front suspension. Getting the car back on the road and a temporary repair cost him dearly, and during so, those looses vital minutes, but manages to limp out of the stage.
Jari-Matti Latvala passes him in the stage, so did Thierry Neuville who also out-timed JML to claim the stage win. Ogier dropping from the quest of rally winning chances, promotes the down-order in one each step up towards the top position. Daneil Sordo & Mikko Hirvonen is elevated to 3rd and 4th overall in the process. PG Andersson too falls victim to the opening stage and damages right-rear suspension of his Fiesta RS, and retires.
In the following stage, SS4 Moselland 1, the limping Polo R breaks down and puts Ogier into the retirement list. The young Belgian Neuville surprises once more with his pace and sets another fastest time to claim the stage win. Latvala & Sordo fall a tad shorter in few seconds.SS8 Grafschaft 1 [19.94km] was the next stage to tackle before the mid-day service break, for many of the cars and here too Neuville showed his pace and clinched a straight 3 consecutive stage win with this one too! Latvala, Sordo, Mikko & Mads Ostberg were the next quick finishers on the top 5 list.
With the cars & crews refreshed with the break, the rally returned to the repitition of the morning loops. Once again it was Thierry fast pace that pretty much shocked most of us, Latvala returned much confident out of the first noon stage and soon finished quicker than everyone on the remainder of the next two stages to end the day. "Car is lovely, I really like driving it.," says JML with a smile.Neuville slips 7.3s overall at the end of SS8, explains "a lot of the stage I was maximum flat out...I cannot
do more actually....when I see the splits I am a little frustrated." Mikko looked almost plain, but says, "I'm happy with the pace I had today. Rally still long and things can happen."
Overall top5 at the end of day 2.
| Pos | No | Driver | Time | Diff / Prev | Diff / 1st | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 7 | J. LATVALA | 1:38:04.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 2. | 11 | T. NEUVILLE | 1:38:11.4 | +7.3 | +7.3 | |
| 3. | 2 | M. HIRVONEN | 1:38:30.4 | +19.0 | +26.3 | |
| 4. | 3 | D. SORDO | 1:38:51.7 | +21.3 | +47.6 | |
| 5. | 4 | M. ÖSTBERG | 1:40:16.4 | +1:24.7 | +2:12.3 |
Day 3 - Saturday, 24th August
Saturday's stages were expected to be more brutal for the top contenders, and it certainly was to most of the top players. With Sebastien Ogier's early exit from the possibilities to the top step, literally the rally has turned to be a game of 'musical chair'! Although not in the pursuit of a podium chances, Seb surely looking to collected any points that could be at disposal and was definitely 'right foot heavy'.
SS9 Stein & Wein 1 [26.54km] - went straight into the bag of Ogier. He finished 3.5s quicker than the Citroen tarmac specialist Dani Sordo. The other Polo R driver JM Latvala & Fiesta RS driver Thiery Neuville too quickly passed through just 4s down the stage winner. Mikko Hirvonen too displayed a better driving pace [as compared to last year], although 9.4s down, still not that bad.
In WRC-2, Robert Kubica was doing his best to hold his lead, with a very close gap with Elfyn Evans, who passed to top with 2.5s overall at the end of the stage. New Zealander Hayden Paddon too took a step over and finished third overall, with Sepp Wiegand dropping to 4th overall by 3.5s.SS10 Peterberg 1 [9.23km] - Dani Sordo, yes, the Spaniard who went fastest through the stage! Latvala & Ogier were closely down, surprising stage win indeed! Neuville & Evgeny Novikov were the next in top 5. However in WRC-2, Kubica regains his lost position, 3.6s up against Evans, and Paddon in battle with Wiegand for comfy third.
SS11 Arena Panzerplatte 1 [41.08km] - The most awaited, dreadful and longest of the rally was the next in the passing & it happened with much big drama. Of course, Ogier won the stage, as Sordo, Latvala were quickly behind in top 3 and Neuville & Mikko finished in top 5. The battle in the WRC-2 was on as in the earlier stages, between Evans & Kubica and the latter kept his top position, although the Welsh was quickest through.
A quick mid-day service separated the repetition of the morning stages in the noon, and filled the stages with real drama with the top lot of the WRC players. It had started raining in many parts of the stages and made the narrow sealed surface a lot greasy.
SS12 - Mads Ostberg was first to take a walk along the German countryside after an off, but before him it was perhaps Latvala fell for the spell, went wide in a corner, sideways, on to a pile of timber and damaged his right rear wheel. He ran after the hit, but the wheel steered him off the road a little further, never to recover back to the road.
Neuville too did the same as the Finn, but was lucky enough to pick apiece of the timber itself all-through the stage. In the process he
damaged his exhaust, lost considerable power till the stage end.
Although he stopped at the transport section to pull it out and free his
car of carrying the additional misery, but the retirement of Latvala put him on the top of the list, even though Sordo was faster than him. Ogier claimed the stage win, when the rest of the field were struggling. In WRC-2, the musical chair was on between Kubica and Evans, and the latter moved a step higher at the end of the stage. Paddon was third, but Wiegand very closely behind.
SS13 - with Neuville's battered Fiesta RS vs' the perfectly in shape DS3, the Spaniard flew through to win another stage, although Ogier had a perfectly functioning Polo R finished second. This also relinquished the top step to Sordo who took the rally leadership.
SS14 - But something really terrible happened before in the support category of historic class of cars, when a pair Dutch competitors crashed their historic rally car at SS Arena Panzerplatte 2. As they jumped off the Gina crest, and crashed out of the road. Despite, frantic efforts by the Medical team, it proved fatal for the duo. With this terrible tragedy in hand, the organisers cancelled the stage and so the day ended. For quite sometime, there was news/rumours flying around about organisers calling the rally to an end, however, later it was made official the rally will continue as per the next day's itinerary.As the excitement was building up, an unfortunate incident flooded all the cheering with this really tragic news. At Ralli Heart, we extend our deepest condolences to the departed souls and their near & dear ones.
Special stage Dhrontal, opens up the final day's action, while its repetition being the 'Power Stage' will mark and decides the victory. So who will win, the Spaniard or the Belgian?
Overall top5 at the end of day 3.
| Pos | No | Driver | Time | Diff / Prev | Diff / 1st | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 3 | D. SORDO | 2:43:48.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 2. | 11 | T. NEUVILLE | 2:43:49.3 | +0.8 | +0.8 | |
| 3. | 2 | M. HIRVONEN | 2:45:16.1 | +1:26.8 | +1:27.6 | |
| 4. | 21 | M. PROKOP | 2:49:54.8 | +4:38.7 | +6:06.3 | |
| 5. | 74 | R. KUBICA | 2:51:21.6 | +1:26.8 | +7:33.1 |
Day 4 - Sunday, 25th August
A thrilling finale at ADAC Rally Deutschland's victory battle with the last two stages, the twice run special stage, Dhrontal and the Citroen DS3 driver, Dani Sordo scores atop to claim his first ever WRC victory! Being in a WRC car for the past few years, the Spaniard had a few slippages from claiming a proper rally victory, but that was just until today!Fiesta RS driver, the Belgian Thierry Neuville was right on Dani's tail, since the over night leadership commanded a mere 0.8 seconds. In the first run of SS Dhronthal, Sordo literally flew through to take the stage win and also increased his chances by another 2.2s, with a 3s separating the Fiesta RS driver. Ogier surprised everyone by dropping nearly 12s to the rally leader, although he was expected to go all out for the bonus points in the re-run being the 'Power Stage.' Latvala completed the stage, and Mikko settled with being 5th quickest, to hold his 3rd position intact.
In WRC-2, Kubica was almost 10s quicker to Evans and Paddon was comfortably in 3rd overall.
Power Stage was the ultimate showdown to the rally, along with some extra championship points at disposal. Ogier was expected to be the claimant and he did whisk away those top 3 points with the stage win, although it was Dani Sordo who was second quickest who with additional 2 points took the Rally victory. After Loeb's retirement, Citroen team seemed to have caught in a landslide without any good results, but now they had the moment to finally jump off their seats & rejoice with two cars finishing at the podium, with Mikko taking the final podium step.
Latvala completed third quickest through the stage to claim the final bonus point, and Thierry Neuville the weekend's brave young driver seems to have encountered some issue to not be competitive and slips off the top 5 in the stage results, with 32s down to Ogier, however he retains his second podium spot. Job well done! Robert Kubica wins the WRC-2 class, Elfyn Evans & Hayden Paddon complete the top three, respectively.
| Pos | No | Driver | Time | Diff / Prev | Diff / 1st | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 3 | D. SORDO | 3:15:19.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 2. | 11 | T. NEUVILLE | 3:16:12.4 | +53.0 | +53.0 | |
| 3. | 2 | M. HIRVONEN | 3:17:55.5 | +1:43.1 | +2:36.1 | |
| 4. | 21 | M. PROKOP | 3:23:20.2 | +5:24.7 | +8:00.8 | |
| 5. | 74 | R. KUBICA WRC-2 | 3:24:20.7 | +1:00.5 | +9:01.3 |
For the next round, WRC travels across the Indian ocean to Rally Australia in second week of September.
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