WRC: 8 straight for Loeb and a Citroen sweep in Germany!

Sébastien Loeb leads a Citroen sweep of Rally Deutschland. Ever since Germany returned to the WRC the headline, “Sébastien Loeb wins Rally Deutschland" has now been repeated eight times, a record. 59 career wins, a record, and a fast approaching seventh world title would be yet another record for the great Frenchman.

The only driver to pose even the slimmest of threats was “works” team mate Dani Sordo, who was 10.8 seconds behind, heading into the longest stage of the season, Panzerplatte 1. After the first run through this tank testing section the Spaniard was 23 seconds adrift. From then on it was done and dusted. If Petter Solberg had not suffered two punctures early in the rally, maybe he could have posed a threat to Loeb…maybe. The former world champion took his share of stage wins but had to settle for 5th place points from round 9. Sébastien Ogier ran a clean rally, picked up tarmac experience and completes the C4 photo op on the podium.

Also showing well on the asphalt was Jari-Matti Latvala, who now seems to have the edge over team mate Mikko Hirvonen. The winner on Rally Sweden to open the season is now 6th in the world championship. The loss of four-wheel drive, followed by a broken drive shaft are the latest troubles for the Finn, who leaves Germany with a goose egg in the point’s table.

Matthew Wilson did himself well in his battle with Kimi Raikkonen. Wilson held off the Junior Citroen driver to score a credible 6th place. Ford driver Khalid Al Qassimi and Mark Van Eldik, in a privateer Subaru Impreza, scored the final points among the WRC field.

The final championship point allocated is, perhaps, the most deserving of all as it went to the winner in S-WRC Patrick Sandell. The Swede battled hammer and tong with Martin Prokop and P-G Andersson over every one of the 19 stages to win for just 4.7 seconds from Prokop.

FINAL TOP TEN

1 Loeb

2 Sordo +51.3s

3 Ogier +2:13.3s

4 Latvala +2:33.9s

5 Solberg +6:47.7s

6 WIlson +8:46.7s

7 Raikkonen +8:50.5s

8 Al Qassimi +17:36.5s

9 Van Eldik +17:53.0s

10 Sandell + 17:58.8s

Drivers’ Championship after round 9

1 Sébastien Loeb 191 points

2 Sébastien Ogier 133

3 Jari-Matti Latvala 117

4 Petter Solberg 100

5 Dani Sordo 95

6 Mikko Hirvonen 86

7 Matthew Wilson56

8 Federico Villagra 26

9 Henning Solberg 25

10 Kimi Raikkonen 21