Sebastien Loeb has won for the ninth time in the 10 year history of Rallye Deutschland.
Driving a Citroen DS3 WRC, Loeb won the opening stage on Friday morning to take a lead he would never relinquish following a dominant display in changeable weather conditions. The result was his seventh victory of 2012 – his fifth in succession – and hands him a 54-point title lead heading to Wales Rally GB next month.
“It was a hard rally, the conditions were extremely difficult, which meant I had some very difficult tyre choices to make,” said Loeb.
“We had a good drive, a perfect car and I made no mistake. Winning the Power Stage also meant this was a perfect weekend. I also had a lot of support from the fans.”
Jari-Matti Latvala was the leading Ford finisher in second – his best result on asphalt in the WRC – with Mikko Hirvonen making it two Citroen runners on the podium in third.
Mads Ostberg finished fourth for the Adapta World Rally Team with Chris Atkinson a strong fifth in his debut for WRC Team MINI Portugal.
“You can’t hope for a better start together than what we got this weekend,” said Atkinson.
“The car and the team have been awesome. Fifth place is my best ever result in Germany so I have got to be happy.”
Rally Germany : Final Results
Position | Driver | Team | Time |
1 | Sebastien Loeb | Citroen WRT | 3:41:52.4 |
2 | Jari-Matti Latvala | Ford WRT | +2:00.1 |
3 | Mikko Hirvonen | Citroen WRT | +2:31.4 |
4 | Mads Ostberg | Adapta Ford | +3:24.4 |
5 | Chris Atkinson | Italia Mini | +9:10.4 |
6 | Sebastien Ogier | VW Skoda | +9:50.8 |
7 | Andreas Mikkelsen | VW Skoda | +12:22.7 |
8 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Qatar Citroen | +12:50.4 |
9 | Ott Tanak | M-Sport Ford | +13:01.3 |
10 | Dani Sordo | Prodrive Mini | +14:17.3 |
CHAMPIONSHIP: Driver
Position | Driver | Points |
1 | Loeb | 199 |
2 | Hirvonen | 145 |
3 | Solberg | 104 |
4 | Ostberg | 102 |
5 | Latvala | 87 |
6 | Novikov | 55 |
CHAMPIONSHIP: Manufacturer
Position | Team | Points |
1 | Citroen | 320 |
2 | Ford WRT | 197 |
3 | M-Sport Ford WRT | 115 |
4 | Qatar WRT | 59 |
5 | Citroen Junior | 54 |
6 | Adapta WRT | 49 |