Germany : BFGoodrich - FinishAfter establishing new records for the highest number of WRC wins (their score increases to 33 this weekend), for the highest number of wins in a single season (10) and for the highest proportion of stages won on a single event (they won every
stage in Corsica in 2005),
Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena broke a new record this weekend in Germany with their BFGoodrich-equipped Citroën C4 WRC: that of the highest number of consecutive wins on the same WRC round thanks to a sixth success on the trot on the Rallye Deutschland.
The World Champion was joined on the podium by François Duval (2nd in his privately-entered Citroën/BFGoodrich) and Mikko Hirvonen (3rd). Hirvonen's Ford/BFGoodrich team-mate Marcus Grönholm fell back two places from second to fourth on the final stage, conceding five Drivers' championship points to Loeb who has closed to within just eight points of the Finn.
Since its inclusion in the World Championship in 2002, the Rallye Deutschland has systematically offered a stark contrast between the serenity of the barges gliding down the Mosel River and the ferocity of the battling on the valley's vineyard covered banks' with
Sebastien Loeb always coming out on top.
In 2002, the future World Champion made up for his frustration on the Monte Carlo Rally by notching up his maiden WRC win in Germany. The following year saw him successfully ward off
Marcus Gronholm's strong late challenge.
In 2004 and 2005, it was Belgium's François Duval who proved his closest rival, while the 2006 event saw his own team-mate Dani Sordo give him more than just a good run for his money before settling in the Frenchman's wake.
This time round, continuing his domination of the event in style,
Sebastien Loeb succeeded in fending off every one of these drivers at the same time, although his sixth consecutive win in Germany was by no means easy.
A shower at Friday lunchtime while crews were still in the service park in Trier, suggested changeable weather for the hours ahead and the leading drivers had only a few minutes in which to choose their tyres for the second loop. Loeb opted for the soft compound, a decision that could have proved extremely costly.
Indeed, it was another Citroën/BFGoodrich driver, François Duval, who emerged on top of the provisional leaderboard at the end of the first day which saw the Citroën Sport factory team's day suffer a further blow when Dani Sordo's C4 WRC joined the retirements list (engine).
Sebastien Loeb regained control after Saturday's opening stage thanks to a fastest time on the first Saint Wendel test and then profited from two spins by Duval to pull even further clear. The rest of the day saw him pull gradually ahead of his rivals to end the day with a lead of 37.8 seconds over Marcus Grönholm (Ford/BFGoodrich).
The Finn quickly realized that his chances of winning in Germany were near impossible and second place would have been an ideal finish for him. However, even the silver medal turned out to be no foregone conclusion for the championship leader.
True, Duval's poor start to Saturday's action enabled Grönholm and his Ford/BFGoodrich team-mate Mikko Hirvonen to ease into second and third places, but the Belgium succeeded in closing the gap to just 12.6 seconds compared with Grönholm by the end of the day. After standing out as Loeb's principal rival first thing Saturday, Duval became the Frenchman's biggest ally in terms of championship points by the end of the second leg as he battled to pass the Ford pair. At the wheel of his privately-entered Xsara WRC, the Belgian gave it everything he had over the 62km of the third leg and, before the start of the final stage, was only 5s adrift of the former champion who made a mistake in the final test, dropping two places in the overall standings and conceding a total of five points to Loeb in the title chase.
Chris Atkinson's finishing position failed to reflect either his otherwise good run (three fastest times) or the progress made by the Subaru Impreza on asphalt on BFGoodrich tyres since the beginning of the season. As in 2006, Jan Kopecky (Skoda/BFGoodrich) also produced a strong run in Germany, successfully holding off Petter Solberg (6th, Subaru/BFGoodrich) and Toni Gardemeister (7th, Citroën/BFGoodrich) to clinch fifth overall.
Press Release BFGoodrich
