Ogier’s hunt for the title stopped early – Latvala takes lead

• Thrilling duels between Finn Latvala and Belgian Neuville

Munich/Trier, 23 August 2013 – For world championship leader Sébastien Ogier, the dream of an early title win quickly came to an end. At the start of the second leg of the ADAC Rallye Deutschland, he slid off the road and damaged the front suspension of his Volkswagen Polo R WRC. He lost almost three minutes and eventually even had to retire for the day. Thus, his team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala moved up into the lead and had spirited duels with Belgian Ford driver Thierry Neuville throughout Friday’s six special stages.

Neuville had already set four fastest stage times to reduce Latvala’s lead to only two seconds, but then Finn Latvala countered with two fastest times and extended his lead from Neuville to a little bit over seven seconds at the finish of the day’s leg in Trier. Behind the two pace-setters, the two Citroën drivers Daniel Sordo (+26.3 sec.) and Mikko Hirvonen (+46.6 sec.) are biding their chances for the eight remaining special stages on Saturday and Sunday, in which Sébastien Ogier will be at the start again, too. However, he will then be already 27:22.6 minutes down, because he was given a penalty time of five minutes for each special stage he didn’t drive in today.

The mix of sun and rain at the almost 345 kilometres long leg on Friday partly turned the asphalt roads in the Moselle vineyards into treacherously slippery surfaces that didn’t just cause trouble for favourite Ogier. Additional problems with the onboard radio system also caused delay for Sepp Wiegand as the best-placed German. Nevertheless, the Skoda driver was able to defend his tenth place overall. Since Wednesday, a total of 90,000 spectators were along the roads of this ninth world championship round.

Standings 2nd leg after 8 of 16 special stages:

1. Latvala/Anttila FIN/FIN Volkswagen Polo R WRC 1:38.04.1 h.
2. Neuville/Gilsoul BEL/BEL Ford Fiesta RS WRC + 7.3 sec.
3. Sordo/Del Barrio ESP/ESP Citroën DS3 WRC + 26.3 sec.
4. Hirvonen/Lehtinen FIN/FIN Citroën DS3 WRC + 47.6 sec.
5. Östberg/Andersson NOR/SWE Ford Fiesta RS WRC + 2.12.3 min.
6. Prokop/Ernst CZE/CZE Ford Fiesta RS WRC + 4.17.6 min.
…
10. Wiegand/Christian DEU/DEU Skoda Fabia S2000 + 6.53.7 min.
…
48. Ogier / Ingrassia FRA/FRA Volkswagen Polo R WRC + 27:22,6 min.