Volkswagen Polo R driver Jari-Matti Latvala will begin the final day of Rallye Deutschland today with a lead of nearly one minute, but the real fight over the final 74km will be between Citroen Total Abu Dhabi’s Kris Meeke and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville for second place.
The second day began in very dramatic fashion, with championship leader Sebastien Ogier crashing his Polo R heavily into a roadside barrier 1.1km soon after the start in the morning.
Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia, starting first on the road after crashing out of the lead on Friday night, were not injured but both were taken to hospital for precautionary checks.
The impact damaged the barrier which separates the stage from the motorway and the test was halted for safety reasons.
From there on, Latvala slowly built on his lead over Meeke to 56.6sec at the end of the day, and barring any untoward incident the Finn is assured of victory in Germany today.
Now that Ogier is out of contention, it gives Latvala a big chance to make up ground in the drivers’ championship. If the Finn wins today and scoops three points on the Power Stage, Ogier will be just 16 points ahead, with four rallies to go.
Asked about his chances of winning the championship, Latvala said: “Look, you never want anything bad to happen to your team-mate, but I need this victory to happen to open up the championship fight.
“He [Ogier] had some bad luck yesterday and then again today. I know this can happen – it did to me last year. A good fight would be exciting for the rest of the season.
“First, however, I have to finish. I must keep my head cool.”
Behind him, there is an intense battle going on for second place with Irishman Meeke just 4.3sec ahead of Belgian Neuville.
The Hyundai driver pursued the DS3 of Meeke throughout the day and at one point was just 0.9sec behind in third. But on the final stage of the day Meeke widened the gap a bit to Neuville, and the Irishman said: “Thierry was very fast all day and I’m happy with my time here.
“The Citroen works fantastically well in Baumholder – I hope I get the chance to come here again.”
Can he keep Neuville behind today? “I haven’t driven tomorrow’s stages and I want to learn them at my own rhythm. If Thierry beats me tomorrow, it’s not a big drama,” Meeke added.
Hyundai’s second driver, Dani Sordo, and Volkswagen’s third pilot, Andreas Mikkelsen, rounded of the top five.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Racing Junior Driver Mohamed Al Mutawaa and Irish co-driver Stephen McAuley appear to be quickly learning the ropes on their WRC 3 debut at Rallye Deutschland, rising to 8th in class and 51st overall at the end of day two.
The Abu Dhabi-native though began his WRC 3 campaign on the wrong foot on Friday, losing 10 minutes after getting his pacenotes wrong and plunging down the order to finish last on day one.
But day two yesterday was a different story for Al Mutawaa and McAuley, the duo making significant amends in driving rain and challenging weather and stage conditions comprising of eight tests over a competitive distance of 148km.
It is to their credit that the pair made steady progress throughout the day to ultimately go into the overnight halt 8th in class and 51st overall, from a combined field of over 80 cars.
Driving a factory Citroen DS3 R3T RC3 specification car, Al Mutawaa admits that it has been a huge learning curve the first two days and is hoping for a strong finish today.
Al Mutawaa said: “I’m enjoying Rally Germany, especially today under the heavy rain on the last stages of the day.
“I’m slowly gaining experience and, hopefully, by next year I will compete with the top guys in my class.”
The pair will tackle the final 74km today.
