WRC: VW finally tame Rallye Deutschland

From PR materials

It hadn’t been a great hunting ground for VW but they finally put their ghosts to rest with a 1-2-3 at Rallye Deutschland.Skoda topped the event off for VAG

WRC

Sébastien Ogier put Volkswagen’s desire for a maiden home victory ahead of his pursuit of a third consecutive drivers’ world title at ADAC Rallye Deutschland last weekend.

A sixth win of the season put Ogier within touching distance of the title. But he insisted his driving force on the German asphalt was to ensure Volkswagen finally won its home round of the FIA World Rally Championship after failing in the last two years.

Second for Jari-Matti Latvala and third for Andreas Mikkelsen gave the team a podium lockout and Ogier said it was the ideal way to banish the bad memories.

“It was a perfect rally and that was the target, to try to finally give a victory here to my team and I’m proud to achieve that. The third title is getting really close so that’s fantastic, but this weekend the interests of the team were bigger than mine,” he said.

“I had big motivation to correct the mistakes of the past and had a good feeling inside me. A good feeling doesn’t always give the best result, but that was the case. Rally drivers are egotistic, we think a lot about ourselves and our interests, but this week I really wanted to get it for the team.”

Ogier is the king of the live TV Power Stage, underlining his supremacy by claiming maximum bonus points from winning the final test at the last seven rounds. In Germany he had no desire to chase the points in the final Mosel vineyard test and finished sixth.

“I just wanted to finish. It would have been stupid to take a risk and break this fantastic 1-2-3. I wanted it so much for the team.

“For the team, target number one is the championship for manufacturers and drivers but the next target this year was to win the German rally. We promised it to the big boss at the end of last year and we kept this promise,” he said.

WRC2

Jan Kopecky scored Skoda’s third consecutive WRC 2 victory at ADAC Rallye Deutschland on Sunday afternoon after dominating the three-day asphalt event.

Nasser Al-Attiyah regained the championship lead by finishing fourth. The Qatari held a two-point advantage over Esapekka Lappi, Kopecky’s team-mate, who surrendered top spot after crashing into a tree on Friday and eventually finishing out of the points in 13th.

Kopecky reeled off 10 consecutive stage wins in a Fabia R5 as he built a big lead of almost 2min 30sec over Craig Breen. When the Irishman punctured, Kopecky’s advantage rose to more than four minutes and he eased through Sunday’s final leg to win by 4min 13.8sec.

Eric Camilli scored a career-best second in a Ford Fiesta R5 with fellow Frenchman Quentin Giordano third in a DS 3 RRC, a further 2min 00.9sec behind.

Al-Attiyah plunged to 11th after going off the road and puncturing during the opening morning. A determined recovery brought him to within striking distance of Giordano until a spin on Sunday forced him to settle for fourth on his debut in a Fabia R5.

Breen recovered to fifth after overhauling Teemu Suninen on Sunday morning, the difference between the pair 9.2sec after 374.43km of stages.

Joan Carchat won the Production Cup category within WRC 2 in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X by 5min 47.8sec from Eamonn Boland. Max Rendina finished fourth to take the championship lead.