Rally Deutschland

[GaryR]

SS6: Loeb makes it a hat-trick
OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland leader Sebastien Loeb notched up a hat-trick of stage wins on the sixth stage of the opening leg to extend his overall advantage over Citroen team-mate Carlos Sainz to 20 seconds.

Loeb was 3.4s quicker than the Spanish double world champion on the second 21.04km run through Dhrontal as the pair consolidated their lead over the Ford of third-fastest Francois Duval. The Belgian now lies just under half a minute behind the Loeb and Sainz in third place overall.

Reigning world champion Petter Solberg continued to lose time to chief title rival Loeb, dropping another 14 seconds on this stage. He now lies a minute behind Loeb overall. Ford’s Markko Martin was also 14 seconds off the lead pace, and is currently 1m44s off the pace in what is proving to be a bad day for Loeb’s drivers’ championship competitors.

Peugeot returnee Freddy Loix was again impressive, posting the fourth-fastest time as he bids to recover from his disastrous morning suffering with a misfire, but nominated manufacturers' points scorer Cedric Robert had a problematic stage, losing 45s and dropping to eighth overall behind Mitsubishi's Gilles Panizzi, eighth quickest on this stage.

Roman Kresta was once again the fastest Skoda driver, posting the seventh-quickest time. He now lies fifth overall, just 40s behind Solberg's Subaru. Armin Schwarz lost 1m16s on this stage, and has plummeted down the overall running order, while Toni Gardemeister was ninth-fastest to consolidate ninth overall.


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[GaryR]

SS7: Loeb wins fourth straight stage
OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland leader Sebastien Loeb is proving to be impossible to knock off the timesheets as he continues to extend his lead over Citroen team-mate Carlos Sainz in the first asphalt event of the season.

Loeb, who is looking to notch up a hat-trick of wins in the German round of the World Rally Championship this weekend, was 2.1 seconds quicker than Sainz and now has a 22.2s lead over the Spanish double world champion. Reigning champion Petter Solberg was again close, but not close enough, losing another 5.9s to the Citroen duo. He now lies 1m08s behind overall and is no doubt hoping for a change of fortune tomorrow.

The Norwegian has gained a massive chunk time on Ford young gun Francois Duval, however, as the Belgian was 24 seconds off the pace on this stage and now lies 50.7s off the lead in third, 18s in front of Solberg. He's been struggling with his gearchange and a resultant lack of handbrake - crucial on today's tight, twisty stages. His team-mate, Markko Martin, is continuing his rise up the order, posting the seventh-fastest time on SS7 to move past Skoda’s Roman Kresta and up to fifth place overall.

Kresta is now falling into the clutches of Mitsubishi’s Gilles Panizzi, who continues to show the impressive asphalt form he demonstrated at Peugeot with the eighth-fastest time on the stage. The Frenchman is now just two seconds behind in seventh. Peugeot’s remaining nominated manufacturer points scorer, Cedric Robert, is eighth, 2m20.5s off the overall pace, but just 18 seconds behind Panizzi.


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[GaryR]

SS8: Loeb ends day one on a high
Sebastien Loeb made it five OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland stage wins in a row on the second run through the 10.44km Peterberg test to end the opening day comfortably ahead of his rivals on the timesheets.

The Frenchman was 2.5s quicker than Subaru’s Petter Solberg, and ended the rally’s opening leg a full 26.5s ahead of Citroen team-mate Carlos Sainz, who was third-fastest on stage. Although Solberg’s defecit lost the Norwegian further ground in his bid to catch championship leader Loeb, it was good enough to allow him to close slightly on the third-placed Ford of Francois Duval.

The Belgian could only manage the sixth quickest time on this test, and now lies 58.5s behind Loeb, and a more scant 12 seconds ahead of Solberg. Markko Martin in the second Ford was equal third-fastest with Sainz on the stage, and heads into the overnight service a relatively comfortable fifth.

Mitsubishi’s Gilles Panizzi ended a mixed day for the Japanese marque in sixth overall, making up for team-mate Daniel Sola’s SS2 retirement with some impressive stage times in the tricky mixed conditions.

Skoda were also impressive, with Roman Kresta in seventh overall and Toni Gardemeister in 10th place. French Peugeot 206 privateer Alex Bengue ended the day in a points-scoring eighth place, ahead of the works Peugeot team’s nominated points scorer, Cedric Robert, in the lead 307.


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[Firestarter75]

Petter's wreck was brutal, total front rollcage failure. That was very scary and hopefully something can be done to strengthen the car. Frankly if they are going to run the rally next year all those concrete blocks on the side of the road need to get yanked. Im also glad Panizzi is ok, he took a huge hit too.

 

[GaryR]

Leg 2 (photos from www.rally-live.com)

 

[GaryR]

Leg 3 Photos ( www.rally-live.com )

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