ADAC Rallye Deutschland / Rally review
Ogier was relaxed and all smiles before the start.
The weather
Weather forecasters predicted a nice and warm
late summer type of weather. But Germany is
famous for its many microclimates, especially in
the Mosel region. So the weather gods played an
important role in the proceedings but they were
not the only ones. Lady Luck also had some surprises in store.
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Home rally
Volkswagen wanted to do well in their home
event. In a relaxed atmosphere they invited all
media representatives to their quarters to celebrate the first rally for their home crowd. But
before the start the first problem arose. Andreas
Mikkelsen’s navigator Mikko Markkula, proved
Neuville meanwhile is learning to deal with ‘superstart-status’ .
to be unfit for rallying in Germany. In Finland
a heavy landing on some of the ever-present
jumps had caused a lot of discomfort. Special
training and relative rest seemed to have done
the job. However during recce he suffered a lot of
pain and the VW medical staff send him to a special hospital. Some MRI scans showed a bruised
and a broken vertebrae and it would be impossible for him to compete. For safety reasons team
management decided not to find another co-pilot.“ Andreas and Mikko use a new notes system
since the beginning of this year and Mikko is the
only one who is familiar with that”, ”says teamprincipal Jost Capito. ”In these circumstances
the only option is to choose for safety!” Consequently Mikkelsen had to retire before he even
started.
Before the start
If we have to go on what people said before the
start we would have an interesting battle on our
hands. Here’s what the main players had to say:
Sebastien Ogier was most relaxed. “Why couldn’t
we win here?” he said. “I’m not too concerned as
I don’t have to win here. But obviously a win here
would be nice for my championship chances.” A
little bit different was the home of Ford, here we
found a bundle of people all gathering around
Thierry Neuville. He seems to be a little bit less
at ease. Although he says he doesn’t feel much
extra pressure, he looks a bit more tense than
usual. “I’ve had some good results this year and
so I feel confident for this race.”