Ott Tanak’s World Rally Championship lead has been extended to 35 points over Thierry Neuville after recording a third successive Rally Germany victory for Toyota. Tanak led a clean sweep of the podium for the Japanese marque, with Kris Meeke coming home 20.8s in arrears, with Jari-Matti Latvala third.
Neuville salvaged fifth behind Hyundai teammate Dani Sordo on the Powerstage – which he won – after falling out of victory contention after changing a wheel at the end of Saturday’s running.
He now moves ahead of six-time WRC champion Sebastien Ogier – who also had to change a wheel following a puncture – in the standings, 13 points clear of the Frenchman.
Motorsport.com understands Sordo will check in late to hand Neuville fourth place, gifting the Belgian a further two points in his pursuit of Tanak.
After topping Thursday evening’s opening stage, Tanak edged into an early 3.2s lead on Friday morning over Neuville’s Hyundai.
Neuville had set the quickest time on the opening pass of Stein und Wein to briefly hold the lead and stayed in contention by the end of the second loop, reducing the deficit to just 2.8s overnight.
The gap then came down to 1.5s after Saturday’s first stage at Freisen, but a mistake and subsequent stall for Neuville on the following stage Romerstrasse allowed Tanak to open up a five-second advantage.
Things then got worse for Neuville on the 6.6-mile Panzerplatte test, with the Hyundai driver dropping 1m26s – and five places to seventh – after having to stop and change a tyre following a puncture.
From then on, it was a case of damage limitation for Neuville, who claimed two stage wins on Sunday and benefited from teammate Dani Sordo gifting him fourth on the Powerstage.
Sordo had been running inside the top five by the end of Friday’s stages, but dropped to ninth after encountering gearbox issues on the day’s final test at Wadern-Weiskirchen.
Esapekka Lappi finished as the best Citroen driver in sixth, despite losing nearly 20s on SS10 (Freisen 2) after spinning his C3 and getting stuck in a ditch. The Finn and co-driver Janne Ferm were able to get going again thanks to the help of nearby spectators.
Lappi finished just four seconds ahead of Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen following a lively battle between the pair of Sunday morning.
Mikkelsen began the day almost six seconds in front but Lappi moved ahead following the opening passage of Grafschaft, with the positions swapping on the following two stages.
Lappi then beat Mikkelsen by nearly 1.6s to secure sixth on the Powerstage.
His Citroen teammate Ogier however, had a nightmare event and finished a frustrated eighth, scoring just one Powerstage point.
Ogier’s struggles began on Friday morning as understeer hampered his progress in the C3 compared to Neuville and Tanak ahead of him.
He started Saturday morning a full 30 seconds adrift of the leaders and plummeted down the order when he and co-driver Julien Ingrassia were forced to change a wheel following a puncture on the final Panzerplatte stage.
Bemoaning a car he “cannot drive” on Sunday morning, a dejected Ogier finished 1m56.3 seconds behind winner Tanak, and is now 42 points adrift in the championship.
Gus Greensmith was the highest-placed M-Sport car in ninth in what was a tricky event for the Cumbrian team.
De facto team leader Teemu Suninen’s rally barely got going before a fly-by-wire issue stopped the Finn’s Ford Fiesta WRC at the beginning of Friday’s opening stage, forcing him into retirement for the day.
Greensmith also slid wide and hit a tree on SS8, breaking the right-front steering arm in the process. The inexperienced WRC2 regular then survived a power steering scare late on Saturday, but brought the car home comfortably ahead of Toyota newcomer Takamoto Katsuta who finished 10th.
Jan Kopecky claimed a routine WRC2 Pro victory in his Skoda Fabia R5 after team-mate Kalle Rovanpera’s quest for a fifth successive class victory unravelled after two off-road excursions in his Fabia R5.
The first occurred on SS8 when the Finn nosed his car into a ditch on a left-hander, requiring spectator assistance. He then compounded the error by going off again on SS9.
Source: Motorsport.com
