Sixth victory for the world championship in Trier with 210 000 spectators
Aug 21, 2007
With his sixth consecutive victory in the ADAC Rallye Deutschland, Citroën driver Sébastien Loeb (C4 WRC) kept his chances of a title defense in the World Rally Championship upright. At the same time, the Frenchman wrote rallying history: no other driver has had such a run of success in the same event since the World Championship for drivers was introduced in 1979.
Second place was occupied by Belgian François Duval (Citroën Xsara WRC) from Finnish drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Marcus Grönholm (both Ford Focus WRC).
Behind the reining champion, who had taken the lead from his fellow Citroën driver Duval on the second of three one-day legs and kept it until the finish, there was drama just before the end of the rally. Marcus Grönholm (FIN), most recently the winner of the rally in his native Finland with the new Ford Focus WRC and leading Loeb in the championship standings, seemed on course to finishing second and scoring points to maintain his lead. After all, the Scandinavian gravel specialist never had a chance of beating Loeb on the asphalt in the south-western part of Germany. But things came in a different way. On the final stage, Grönholm came off the track. With damaged suspension, he made it to the end of the stage and finally to the finish in Trier. The delay of approximately 80 seconds cost him two places in the final standings.
Duval, currently without a permanent drive, had taken his chance and put himself in favour with the Citroën works-team. His duty was to support Loeb’s recovery in the championship by holding off Grönholm with his year-old car. Having started third into the final leg, 12 seconds down on the Finn, Duval was only five seconds behind going into the final stage. Grönholm showed his nerves. For the Belgian, this meant: mission accomplished. In Trier, Loeb closed up from 13 to eight points from Grönholm in the championship standings. The six remaining rounds of the World Rally Championship are three gravel and three asphalt events each, so excitement in the series is guaranteed.
The almost 210,000 excited rally spectators from over a dozen countries not only got to see thrilling rallying action on the classic stages in the vineyards and at the military training ground of Baumholder. There was also the premiere of a new concept with the "Circus Maximus”, a spectacular special stage in the city centre of Trier surrounding the Porta Nigra. "This is an incredibly great stage for drivers and fans, and a challenging one at that”, said Subaru driver, Petter Solberg (N), at the end of the stage.
ADAC sports president, Hermann Tomczyk, was also positive about the event: "From an overall point of view, the 2007 ADAC Rallye Deutschland has once again been a successful world championship rally. The weather was good and so was the event as a whole. The fact that we have had more spectators yet again also makes us happy. Thanks to our traffic guidance system, we didn’t have any major traffic jams. With the "Circus Maximus” special stage, during which four cars are on the stage at the same time, we were able to celebrate a successful world premiere. I had the feeling that everybody in Trier was there to watch and everybody had a great time. From a sporting point of view, our world championship round was promotion for rallying again. The battle for victory was on for three days. The position fights in front were thrilling for the spectators, who got to see excitement till the end.”
1. Sebastien Loeb (Fra) Citroen 3hr 27min 27.500sec
2. Francois Duval (Bel) Citroen +00:20.300
3. Mikko Hirvonen (Fin) Ford +1:19.100
4. Marcus Groenholm (Fin) Ford +1:36.500
5. Jan Kopecky (Cze) Skoda +3:07.100
6. Petter Solberg (Nor) Subaru +3:14.700
7. Toni Gardemeister (Fin) Citroen +3:37.500
8. Jari-Matti Latvala (Fin) Ford +5:29.300
9. Matthew Wilson (GB) Ford +11:04.200
10. Guy Wilks (GB) Ford +19:47.800
