RallySport Magazine September 2016

RALLY GERMANY - WRC 9
Dani Sordo took second place
ahead of his Hyundai teammate,
Thierry Neuville.
Starting first car on the road, Sebastien
Ogier cruised through to win
the all-asphalt Rallye Deutschland,
but his Volkswagen team did not repeat
their 1-2-3 walkover of last year.
Teammate Jari-Matti Latvala’s VW
was out of contention on stage one
when the car’s gearbox failed, though
Andreas Mikkelsen led for seven stages
before falling back with errors, and
then losing his brakes in the final stage,
finishing fourth.
Hyundai drivers, Dani Sordo and
Thierry Neuville, meanwhile, were
furiously battling Mikkelsen for second
place up to the final stage, the place
finally going the way of Sordo by 0.1
seconds.
M-Sport had a miserable event with
Mads Ostberg struggling to sixth place
with technical problems, and Eric
Camilli off the road, also on the opening
stage, but happy to hear that their
absent R5 team driver, Elfyn Evans,
clinched the British Championship on
the same weekend.
Citroen released one of their cars
for protégé driver Stephane Lefebvre
to use, but he crashed heavily on Day
2 when sixth, hospitalising both crew
members.
DMack M-Sport driver, Ott Tanak, was
sidelined with alternator failure when
holding fifth place at half way, his latest
version asphalt tyres not so impressive
here as the DMack gravel tyres had
been on previous events.
Support championship categories
saw runaway wins for Esapekka Lappi
(WRC2), Simone Tempestini (WRC3/
Junior) and Osian Pryce (Drive DMack
Fiesta Trophy).
When the teams arrived in Germany,
the big news was that this was VW
Sporting Director Jost Capito’s final rally
before moving over to McLaren F1. VW
were supporting the event, celebrating
50 years in rally sport, not the least by
presenting a selection of famous old
rally cars, mostly Golfs of one sort or
another.
Latvala’s early gearbox problem
proved again that Germany does not
automatically do any favours for VW,
and Ogier had an early struggle with his
fellow VW driver Mikkelsen, who held
the lead for over a full day before he fell
back.
From then on tyre choices played a
major part as the traditionally mercurial
weather patterns kicked in on Day 2,
which meant mud thrown on the road
by Ogier’s car hindered Mikkelsen’s
progress.
Behind them the Hyundais mounted
a charge, led by Thierry Neuville and
Dani Sordo, and started to harry
Mikkelsen, until at the end of Day 2
when just four seconds separated
Mikkelsen, Sordo and Neuville.
The greatest excitement was still to
come. With two stages left, Ogier was
20 seconds ahead, but 3.1 seconds
separated the battling trio. Then the
penultimate stage was cancelled on
account of spectator control problems,
so it was all down to the Power Stage.
Mikkelsen had brake problems,
arriving at the finish with
flames coming from under
the car. Neuville scored the best time,
but Sordo did just enough to finish
second overall by a margin of 0.1 of a
second!
Third Hyundai driver, Hayden
Paddon, finished fifth, finding the going
difficult.
“On nearly every stage I had
a moment,” the New Zealander
confessed. “I have a lot to learn about
tarmac rallying!” And not only about
rallying, but tyre selections as well.
Sadly, M-Sport was not at the party at
all. Even after he rejoined the rally, Eric
Camilli was not on the pace, so there
were hopes that Tanak would present
a challenge. His new version DMack
tyres, however, were not as competitive
as their new version gravel tyres had
been in Poland and Finland, and then
he stopped on Day 2 with alternator
trouble.
Once again, M-Sport’s hopes rested
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