Thierry Neuville wins ADAC Rallye Deutschland

• Belgian and his team Hyundai Motorsport take maiden WRC wins
• Some 200,000 fans celebrate a rally festival

Munich/Trier. 24 August, 2014 – Once again, the ADAC Rallye Deutschland provided entertain-ment at its best, excitement all the way and plenty of drama. The final leg of the German World Rally Championship round was a real thriller. Early on Sunday morning, Volkswagen driver Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN) slid off the road on the Drohntal 1 stage while in the lead and retired. Kris Meeke inherited the lead in the rally with his Citroën DS3, but it wasn’t to last long. One stage later (Grafschaft 1), the Brit lost control of his car and retired as well.

Thus, Thierry Neuville had a clean run to claim his maiden win. The 26-year-old could hardly be-lieve his luck: “Being in front is a great feeling, but the quick retirement of these two top drivers also shows how tough conditions are here.” In a tactically clever way, Neuville drove the two final stages and came home with an advantage of 40.7 seconds from his team-mate Dani Sordo, who completed the 1-2 for the Hyundai team: “This was just fantastic,” the winner of the Ger-man WRC round said.

On Thursday, he couldn’t even have imagined such a success after Neuville had heavily damaged his Hyundai i20 WRC in a multiple roll. Within 19 hours, the team got the car back on its wheels again. Neuville made it to the start in time, was able to maintain his position among the front-runners right away and finally drove his first WRC victory home in front of approximately 200,000 excited spectators, including many fans from his home country Belgium. Thus, he also put an end to Citroën’s successful run, having won all the World Championship rallies in Germany since 2002.

On the 17 demanding special stages around Trier, made particularly slippery by the rain, the lead changed no less than four times. Reigning world champion Sébastien Ogier (F) led from the start till the fifth stage with his Volkswagen Polo R WRC. After that, his team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala took overt until the 14th stage. Kris Meeke only led for less than one hour (stage 15). After this intermezzo, Thierry Neuville finally took his well-deserved first place, having already finished second last year.

The ADAC Rallye Deutschland brought an early decision in the drivers’ championship: in any case, the 2014 World Rally Champion will be driving a Volkswagen, because in the four remaining World Championship rounds, the three Volkswagen drivers Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen can no longer be overtaken by any opponents. They will decide the battle for the title among themselves.

Classified 13th overall with his Skoda Fabia S2000, Armin Kremer was the best-placed German. Young talent Marijan Griebel, an ADAC Sports Foundation protégé, finished a considerable 24th overall and won the FIA class RC4 with his ADAC OPEL Rallye Junior Team-run Opel Adam R2.

The Powerstage (Grafschaft 2), with additional World Championship points at stake and shown live on TV, brought victory for British driver Elfyn Evans (3 points) from overall winner Thierry Neuville (2 points) and Finnish driver Mikko Hirvonen (1 point).

Provisional result after 17 stages:

1. Neuville/Gilsoul BEL/BEL Hyundai i20 WRC 3:07.20.2 hrs.
2. Sordo/Marti ESP/ESP Hyundai i20 WRC - 40.7 sec.
3. Mikkelsen/Floene NOR/NOR Volkswagen Polo R WRC - 58.0 sec.
4. Evans/Barritt GBR/GBR Ford Fiesta RS WRC - 1.03.6 min.
5. Hirvonen/Lehtinen FIN/FIN Ford Fiesta RS WRC - 1.10.5 min.
6. Østberg/Andersson NOR/SWE Citroën DS3 WRC - 1.22.7 min.
...
13. Kremer/Wicha D/D Skoda Fabia S2000 - 12.40.6 min.
24. Griebel/Rath D/D Opel Adam R2 - 28.53.4 min.

Fastest stage times: Latvala 8, Ogier 3, Kubica 2, Evans, Hirvonen, Meeke and Neuville 1 each
Rally leaders: Ogier WP1-5, Latvala WP6-14, Meeke WP15, Neuville WP16-18 (Ziel)

2014 FIA World Rally Championship - Standings after 9 of 13 rounds

Drivers: 1. Ogier 187; 2. Latvala 143; 3. Mikkelsen 110; 4. Østberg 74; 5. Neuville and Hirvonen 73 points each.
Manufacturers: 1. VW Motorsport 305; 2. Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT 138; 3. Hyundai Motorsport 131; 4. M-Sport 128; 5. Volkswagen Motorsport II 109; 6. Jipocar Czech National Team 40 Pkt.