Sebastian Loeb has won Rally Germany for the eighth time and has all but sured up the title with four events left. The Citroen ace was never in question of losing this event as he continues to destroy the competition on tarmac. The French ace now has 191 points to Sebastian Ogier’s 133. Ogier would finish on the final step of the podium while factory driver Dani Sordo would finish an impressive second. A result the Spaniard needed after coming back to the Total team after being demoted to the junior squad in favor of Ogier on gravel. The margin of victory for the event was 51.3 seconds.
Ford would have a nightmare finish to the rally as Jari-Matti Latvala would be the highest placed Ford in 4th position. Mikko Hirvonen would continue under super rally after retiring on day 2, the day would be short lived however as transmission problems would force him out again. Ken Block was about to secure his first points of the year and I can’t help think that I cursed him on the day 2 article. I said it was pretty much in the bag, however an alternator belt would break in route to a stage and see the Monster World Rally driver retire empty handed. Ken’s response to that was “lame”.
Other notables were Petter Solberg in fifth position and Kimi Raikkonen in seventh. Kimi would battle closely with Matthew Wilson and even win his first WRC stage, but he would not be able to haul Wilson for that position.
All in all it was a Citroen lockout yet again. The tarmac rallies have killed Ford this year and I am sure the M-Sport boys are ready to be done with this season in favor of next year’s S2000T cars. With four events left, we now go to Japan. The Fords usually put on a good show, but Citroen has so much fire power it will prove nearly impossible for victory.
Seb Loeb’s victory is absolutely no surprise. He’s nigh unstoppable on tarmac! Gutted for Block, though. Going out in a blaze of glorious sheet metal fragmentation as your car sheds parts rolling end over end down the road is one thing. At least then you can say, “Yeah, but what a hell of a crash video!” Having your alternator go out on you in a transit stage just sucks! That’s the type of thing that breaks on your 15-yr old Chevy POS after 200k miles. Its not the type of failure you should have on a rally car.
agreed Doug. Ridiculous that the machine broke like that. He was gutted and I was gutted for him. Really looking forward to seeing him on the full calendar though. Especially snow rally. I think he may surprise some people next year.