Sébastien Ogier extends his lead in the ADAC Rallye Deutschland

• World championship-winning team Volkswagen Motorsport on its way to success
• Panzerplatte thrills fans with spectacular rally action and Revolverheld concert

München/Trier, 22 August 2015 – Indications are good for Volkswagen Motorsport to score its first home win in the ADAC Rallye Deutschland. The dominant 1-2-3 lead that Sébastien Ogier (FRA), Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN) and Andreas Mikkelsen (NOR) built up with their Volkswagen Polo R WRCs yesterday continues. On today’s nine special stages, world champion Ogier again dominated proceedings and extended his lead. Prior to the decisive leg on Sunday, the Frenchman now has a margin of 33.8 seconds from Latvala and is 1:47.5 minutes clear of Mikkelsen.

On all the special stages, the numerous fans got to see thrilling motorsport action in excellent summer weather. During the morning round, Ogier set the benchmark and decided the opening stage Grafschaft 1 in his favour. Latvala countered by posting the fastest times on the roads of the Bosenberg stage. At Arena Panzerplatte, the French world champion then set the fastest times on both of the back-to-back sprint stages before deciding the subsequent, 45.61 km long supreme stage at the Baumholder military training camp clearly in his favour.

Following the mid-day service, Latvala initially increased the pressure on Ogier with two special stage wins (Grafschaft 2 and Arena Panzerplatte 3). The reigning world champion answered with a faultless second run on the long Panzerplate stage, in which he was 15.3 seconds faster than the Finn. In the second stage at Bosenberg, that concluded the day, the Frenchman went on to set another fastest time.

While Andreas Mikkelsen confirmed his third place with a dominant performance, Hyundai drivers Dani Sordo (ESP) and Thierry Neuville (BEL) were locked up in a tight battle for fourth place. At the end of the day, the Spaniard ranked just ahead of last year’s rally winner from Belgium. Ford driver Elfyn Evans (GBR) held on to his sixth place, closely followed by Mads Østberg (NOR) with his Citroën DS 3 WRC.

Fabian Kreim was the best-placed German at the end of the second day. The protégé of the ADAC Stiftung Sport with his Škoda Fabia R5 made good progress to 23rd place after a technical problem made him drop back yesterday. Marijan Griebel, another young driver from the ranks of the ADAC Stiftung Sport, is 26th overall with his Opel Adam R2. Julius Tannert, the third driver in the field with support from the ADAC Stiftung Sport, is on top in the second round of the ADAC Opel Rallye Cup that runs within the ADAC Rallye Deutschland.

Revolverheld thrills the numerous fans at Panzerplatte

Not only the rally action was top class, because so was the entertainment programme at Panzerplatte. The highlight and a popular crowd-puller was the exclusive rally concert by German band, Revolverheld, at the central Volkswagen stage. With its popular hits, the four musicians from Hamburg ensured that the excitement of the numerous fans also remained at a high level between the special stages.

Standings after 17 of 21 special stages:
1. Ogier/Ingrassia FRA/FRA Volkswagen Polo R WRC 2:55.42.5 hrs.
2. Latvala/Anttila FIN/FIN Volkswagen Polo R WRC +33.8 sec.
3. Mikkelsen/Floene NOR/NOR Volkswagen Polo R WRC +1:47.5 min.
4. Sordo/Marti ESP/ESP Hyundai i20 WRC +2:14.3 min.
5. Neuville/Gilsoul BEL/BEL Hyundai i20 WRC +2:23.8 min.
6. Evans/Barrit GBR/GBR Ford Fiesta RS WRC +2:53.5 min.
7. Østberg/Andersson NOR/SWE Citroën DS 3 WRC +2:56.7 min.