Mistake in final special stage costs Grönholm three points

Winner Loeb now eight points behind Grönholm in drivers' World Championship table

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The ADAC Rallye Deutschland, the German leg of the World Rally Championship circuit, took a dramatic turn during its final special stage. While holding second place in the race, Finland’s Marcus Grönholm, the current number one in the driver’s table, took a spin at high speed. Though he managed to bring his damaged Ford across the line, Grönholm only finished fourth in the race.
     
The German Rally, raced on asphalt, was won assuredly and predictably by the current world champion Sebastien Loeb (Citroën).
      The Frenchman now trails Grönholm by only eight points in this year’s World Championship standings. From outside the factory teams, Belgian Francois Duval came in second with his year-old Citroën Xsara. This was only Duval’s second race this season.
      Grönholm’s teammate and fellow countryman Mikko Hirvonen took his customary third place, thanks to his colleague's little lapse.
     
Grönholm’s mistake was preceded by a close encounter with a cow.
      "We had been warned about the cow, which was near the road. I drove past it without problems, but at the same time I lost my concentration and failed to listen to the navigator's instructions", Grönholm admitted to the Finnish news agency STT after the race.
      Grönholm wasted over a minute in recovering from the spin and shunt. In the final standings he dropped two places and lost three world championship points.
      "Here we were closer to Loeb than ever before on asphalt. In the coming races I just have to stay focused and avoid mistakes", Grönholm commented.
     
For Loeb, Sunday’s win marked his sixth consecutive victory in the German race. The Frenchman has topped the podium every single time in the German WRC event, which has been run since 2002.
      "I am extremely relieved. Success here was important from the World Championship point of view", Loeb said after the champagne had flowed.
     
Yet another Finn, Toni Gardemeister, who suffered from hydraulics and shock absorber problems to say nothing of a puncture on the final day, eventually brought his Citroën Xsara home in seventh. His countryman, Jari-Matti Latvala, steered his privately-entered Ford across the finishing line eighth to take one point.
      The next WRC event will be the New Zealand Rally, raced on gravel at the turn of September.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Marcus Grönholm takes historic seventh win in Rally of Finland (6.8.2007)

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