ADAC Rally Germany (19 – 22 August 2010) – Day 2
The Citroën Total World Rally Team tightened its stranglehold on Rally Germany on the secondday of the event. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena, who have led since the first stage, are well ontheir way to racking up their eighth consecutive victory in Rally Germany. Dani Sordo and DiegoVallejo, thirty seconds behind their team-mates have consolidated their second place. The CitroënC4 WRCs look set to score a triple as Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia have fought their wayup to third place.
The second day of Rally Germany with its 185 timed kilometres was a demanding one for the crews wholeft the Trier service park at 6h30. In brilliant sunlight they set off to tackle three stages. After a servicestop at Birkenfeld, a remote service zone, the rally continued with the longest stage in the worldchampionship: Panzerplatte a 48-kilometre challenge in a military camp on rough concrete roads.In the first three stages, Loeb and Sordo played a cat and mouse game! Seb set the quickest time inHermeskeil (SS7), but Dani fought back in S. Wendeler Land (SS8) and got to within 7.7s of his teammate.But the Frenchman wasn’t having any and the seven-time winner of the event went flat out inFreisen (SS9) posting another fastest time of the day. The C4 WRCs arrived in Birkenfeld separated by10.8s.
The Panzerplatte stage that most of the drivers were not looking forward to was to prove decisive in theduel between Loeb and Sordo. Loeb used the full potential of his C4 WRC shod with the hard Pirelli PZerotyres to the full, and set the fastest time, 12.2s in front of Sordo. “I was surprised by the dampnessin the first few kilometers,” explained the Spaniard; “The time it took me to see that I wasn’t in the rightrhythm and Seb had already pulled out 5s. I tried to push, but I wasn’t able to close the gap and I lostmore time at the end. There’s now twenty-five seconds between us and it’s a whole different race.”“We managed to make the break and that’s going to make the rest of the rally a bit easier,” laughedLoeb. “I wasn’t able to push from one end to the other, as the tyres couldn’t have coped with it. I justhad to find the happy medium in these conditions. I have to add that this performance wouldn’t havebeen possible without my C4 WRC, which had a perfectly-balanced setup.”
But there was no time to sit back and relax as the crews still has another four stages to go. Loeb wasmore interested in maintaining his lead rather than increasing it, and he finished the day feeling that hehad done a good job: “We put on soft tyres for the first three stages. It was a different choice to Dani’sand our rivals, but I wanted to see what would happen. All things taken into account, we set almost thesame times. We’ve finished today with a lead of over thirty seconds on our team-mates, and that couldn’tbe better as we tackle the final stages tomorrow.”
Dani, who set two more fastest times in SS12 and SS13, was also very happy with his day : “We’re wellon the way to giving the Citroën Total World Rally Team another double. It’ll be a great result for me andDiego Vallejo, my new co-driver. Seb was really on another planet today, but we’ve managed to increaseour lead over all the other drivers. We’ll have to finish the job tomorrow!
Overall classification at the end of the second day1. Loeb / Elena Citroën C4 3h 05m 21.6s2. Sordo / Vallejo Citroën C4 +35.7s3. Ogier / Ingrassia Citroën C4 +2m 07.1s4. Latvala / Anttila Ford Focus +2m 23.7s5. P. Solberg / Patterson Citroën C4 +5m 16.0s6. Räikkönen / Lindström Citroën C4 +7m 24.4s7. Wilson / Martin Ford Focus +7m 43.9s8. Hirvonen / Lehtinen Ford Focus +12m 27.4s9. Block / Gelsomino Ford Focus +12m 38.9s10. Van Eldik / Buysmans Ford Focus +14m 10.9s
Click here for the Official Kimi Raikkonen web site - designed and built by Racecar
