WRC – ADAC Rally Deutschland Day 3 : A New WRC Record as Sebastien Loeb Takes 8th Successive Victory
Sebastien Loeb sets another WRC record as he won his 8th successive Rally Deutschland, becoming the 1st driver to achieve such a feat.
Loeb’s 50th victory in the world championship rallies came as no surprise after Citroen instructed Dani Sordo (above) to back off a day earlier to ensure a 1-2 finish. Sordo finished in 2nd place, 51.3 seconds behind Loeb.
Sebastien Ogier (above) completed a memorable day for Citroen after he managed to fend off a late charge from Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala (below) to clinch 3rd place. Both Ogier and Latvala struggled in the earlier special stages and had problems with low revs in the hairpins.
Petter Solberg registered the fastest time through SS15 and finished in 5th place overall leaving the fight for 6th place between Citroen Junior driver Kimi Raikkonen (above) and Ford Stobart driver Matthew Wilson (below). Although Raikkonen begins the day 19 seconds ahead of Wilson, 2 mistakes in the earlier stage proved costly as Wilson managed to steal the 6th place by just 3.8 seconds.
Mikko Hirvonen bowed out of the title challenge and had a rally to forget as his car is stuck in one gear in SS16. The Ford driver is now 105 points behind championship leadr Loeb with only 4 rallies remaining.
With only 100 points up for grab, Loeb now leads the standings by 58 points ahead of Ogier. In the manufacturers’ championship standings, Citroen Total World Rally Team leads the standings with 308 points, 86 points more than 2nd place BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team.
Photo : Citroen WRC, worldrallypics.com
