Photo Credit: Volkswagen Motorsport He had to wait 6 months for it, but Frenchman Sebastien Ogier racked up career win #35 on the ADAC Rallye Deutschland at the weekend, taking his third win of the season.
The World Champion has been hampered with road positioning on the past few rallies due to leading the championship and subsequently sweeping the loose gravel away for his rivals, but the sealed tarmac roads of the Moselland vineyard roads and Baumholder military area presented no such problems for VW's number 1. However, Ogier and Ingrassia did not have it easy on round 9 of the championship, with the fight coming from across the garage and over at Hyundai Motorsport, with good friends Andreas Mikkelsen and Thierry Neuville along with Dani Sordo all right in the thick of the battle in what became a four car fight for the podium. It was the Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen who got the best start, leading after the opening day in what was largely considered to be his best day of the 2016 WRC season. However, as the pressure mounted to keep his fast charging team mate behind him, mistakes started to creep in, and Ogier burst clear on the Panzerplatte long tests, snatching 13 seconds from his rivals on the first run, ultimately deciding the fate of the rally. Mikkelsen would ultimately lose out to his Hyundai rivals too, in what was an epic three car duel for the final two podium places on Sunday. The two Hyundai drivers Neuville and Sordo, previous winners of the German round of the championship, were majestic to watch, incredibly closely matched and proved the pace of the new-generation i20 WRC. Admittedly Ogier did manage to streak away on Saturday much like his great compatriot Sebastien Loeb used to, but Sordo and Neuville set a lot of fastest stage times, and kept the VW's honest, with both of them overhauling Mikkelsen on Sunday morning despite the Norwegian pushing to the maximum. In the end, the returning Dani Sordo got the better of his team mate from across the border in Belgium, but by the slenderest of margins possible - 0.1 seconds. Both had great rallies, and Sordo subsequently picked up a new 2 year deal to stay at Hyundai Motorsport until 2018. The other Hyundai man, Hayden Paddon, was a rather distant fifth, competing on a surface he himself admits is not his favourite. The Kiwi had a spectacular time of it on Friday, including a huge high speed moment he was lucky to escape from unscathed. Mads Ostberg came home sixth, another lacklustre and distant finish for the Norwegian who has now slipped behind Dani Sordo in the championship despite having competed on an extra event compared to the Spaniard. The rest of the top 10 was filled out by Skoda Fabia R5's, with Finn Esapekka Lappi leading the quartet. So what of the other 4 WRC drivers? Jari-Matti Latvala and Eric Camilli both never made it to the first stop control of the rally, with Latvala's Polo grinding to a halt with transmission woes and Camilli parking his Fiesta in the German countryside, not what we were expecting from the Frenchman on his preferred surface. Ott Tanak was running in fifth ahead of Paddon and Ostberg until on day 2 the alternator on his DMACK Fiesta WRC had had enough, and it was Rally 2 for the Estonian from then on in. Stephane Lefebvre and Gabin Moreau were entered in a privately run DS3 WRC after the Abu Dhabi Total WRT decided not to run any cars on the first true tarmac event of the season. The Frenchman funded his own drive, keen to respond to Craig Breen's podium performance in Finland. Sadly it wasn't to come good for Lefebvre. Despite taking a stage win and running well in the top 6, it was Panzerplatte that would catch him out. He ran wide on a corner, hit the famously notorious hinkelsteins and careered into the trees. Both he and Moreau were hospitalised, but are thankfully on the mend. The next round of the WRC is the Tour de Corse after the cancellation of Rally China, and I've got a funny feeling a certain French World Champion may have his eye on a Corsican win and first victory on home soil since 2013.
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Photo Credit: M-Sport After eight rallies so far in 2016, the teams and drivers of the World Rally Championship will get their first proper taste of tarmac on round 9 of the championship, ADAC Rallye Deutschland.
Rally Germany, often likened to three tarmac rallies in one, is one of the toughest tests in the WRC calendar, taking in stages in the military ranges with the deadly hinkelsteins the country roads through the vineyards and the main, wide tarmac roads. Last year, after suffering a torrid time on their home event for two consecutive years, VW came up trumps with a 1-2-3 led by Sebastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala. However, the German marque have been less dominant than in recent years, having only won 50% of the rallies so far this year, far less than in 2013, 14 and 15. But what has held Ogier in particular back this year, road positioning, will have little to zero effect on the tarmac of Germany, so you'd be pretty brave to bet against Ogier notching up a third Germany win, having not a won a rally since February's Rally Sweden. Latvala and Mikkelsen will be quick too, with both drivers having won on the black stuff in the past. Over at Hyundai, they may well be quietly confident of further rattling VW and Jost Capito's cage. Both Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo are former winners of Rallye Deutschland, and the new-generation i20 has already claimed 2 victories this year already. Neuville's return to form has come just at the right time, and Sordo is a renowned tarmac expert, and after missing Finland through injury will be more than keen to make amends. Hyundai's third driver Hayden Paddon however may struggle this weekend as he is well known for preferring the feeling of gravel stages beneath his i20. Having said that, the Kiwi is a consummate professional and lightning quick so will do everything to improve his tarmac driving and may well be a dark horse. As will Frenchman Eric Camilli. The Frenchman has limited experience in the WRC, but having grown up driving on French tarmac roads, tarmac is a surface he is more comfortable with. We are yet to see what Eric can do on the sealed surface, so it shall be intriguing to watch. On the other side of the M-Sport garage, Mads Ostberg is not a strong tarmac driver in comparison with his peers. The Norwegian has had a slightly disappointing season to date, so will need to do all he can to get in the top 5 as pressure from team principal Malcolm Wilson inevitably mounts. Citroen and the Abu Dhabi Total WRT will be represented by Stephane Lefebvre, at a very convenient time for the French driver. After Craig Breen's stunning performance at Rally Finland where he claimed a maiden WRC stage win and podium, Lefebvre may need to take a leaf out of Kris Meeke's book when he was vying for a factory Citroen seat and just go for hell for leather and prove his pace. Breen and Lefebvre are both likely candidates to partner Meeke, so Lefebvre has to prove what he has in Germany. Rally Germany is a favourite of the fans and the crews alike, and is always exciting to see who will perform well on the tarmac. I can't quite look past a determined Ogier winning this one though. Photo Credit: Citroen Racing Kris Meeke has been in the form of his life in 2016, winning two out of the four WRC events he has competed on and being right on the pace on the other two. Many will argue that because he is only completing a bit-part campaign, he has benefited from a lower road positioning and to an extent this is true, but you don't win Neste Rally Finland and with it set the highest average speed ever recorded in the WRC if you are not a brave, seriously talented driver.
The Brit has always had the speed but has now managed to keep the speed without the errors that we became used to with Meeke, and with all new regulations in 2017 Kris could be a real contender for the World Rally Championship title. That can only be a good thing for the series and for Brits like myself, who haven't had a driver to get excited about since 2003 with Colin McRae and Richard Burns. So why is it so important that we have a rampant Kris Meeke next year that can challenge the VW's and Sebastien Ogier for the title? Well from a British perspective it can only raise the profile of the WRC, with the championship reaching main stream TV back in the day because of McRae and Burns' exploits. That way more people will potentially get involved, improving the health of the sport in the United Kingdom. My own surroundings aside, the sport needs somebody to be able to consistently challenge Ogier. Latvala was in the title fight in 2014 and hopefully will be next year, but it was inevitable that Ogier would beat the Finn as he was ultimately, and is, better than everybody else. But Meeke in 2016 was battling the Frenchman tooth and nail in Monte-Carlo and for a wee while in Sweden, pointing to a potential mouth watering fight next year between two drivers competing for different teams. It remains to be seen how competitive both the 2017 Polo R and C3 WRC cars are. Adding further spice to the mix is the media battle between Meeke himself and VW team principal Jost Capito. Capito was heavily critical of the WRC road order rules after Meeke dominated Rally Portugal, and before Rally Finland the German clearly had his crystal ball out, claiming Meeke would win the event. Meeke duly did, with Capito hitting back claiming that Meeke could take no value from his historic win, while Meeke quipped back: "I'll see you next year!" This could be mouth-watering if the two teams and drivers are battling in such close proximity next year, and could add to the title fight. What we really want is a load of drivers being able to battle fair and square with the championship going down to the wire on the final event of the season. It obviously remains to be seen how competitive the cars from Volkswagen, Hyundai, Citroen, M-Sport and Toyota will be, but let's hope we can have at least somebody next year who can take the fight to Sebastien Ogier season long, because then the World Championship really will be back to its best. Kris Meeke looks like the most likely man to do that. |
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January 2018
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