Rally Deutschland Wrapup

Sebastien Loeb has won this year’s German Rally by a mere 3 seconds over Marcus Gronholm. It’s been quite a wild weekend, with multiple lead changes and nasty weather.

Both Richard Burns and Markko Martin held the lead at various points this weekend. Burns looked to be set to score his first win in a Peugeot, but things just went all wrong on Saturday, and Burns just couldn’t keep up with the rest of field. He had slipped as far as fifth, but a strong showing on Sunday moved him back into third, giving him enough points to maintain his lead in the drivers championship. Martin was foiled by mechanical problems with his Ford Focus. First, gearbox problems late on Friday moved him down the standings, then after charging back to the hunt on Saturday, more transmission problems had him fighting again.

Interesting technical note:
On friday, Martin lost 5th and 6th gear in the Focus and was forced to use manual shifting. Most of the WRC cars use semi-automatic sequential transmissions, meaning they only need the clutch to start and stop, and they shift via paddles or levels on the steering column. When Ford released the latest version of the Focus WRC this year, one of the “advancements” was combining the handbrake and manual shifter into a single unit to save space in the cramped cockpit (the handbrake is a key tool for the rally driver…it allows them to lock the rear wheels and swing the back of the car around tight corners, thus preserving speed and momentum). Well, in manual mode, Martin lost use of the handbrake altogether, and on the tight vineyard stages actually had to make 3 point turns (!) to get around some of the corners. I’m sure the Ford engineers suddenly didn’t feel so clever after Martin lost even more time.

Martin ended the rally in fifth place, after ending the day Sunday with more stage wins.

Citroen had a strong showing from Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz, with McRae taking 4th and Sainz 6th. Sainz also managed to hold onto second place in the drivers championship.

Skoda did not manage to get a new Fabia to the finish line, but both Toni Gardemeister and Didier Auriol were quite happy with the car, and Gardemeister managed consistent stage times, even cracking the top 10 several times (quite a feat given the limited number of retirements). Hopefully, given the rest of the schedule, Skoda will focus on tarmac testing, and we could see some good results by the end of the year.

It was quite a disappointing rally for Subaru. Petter Solberg said he felt “unwell” all weekend, and never managed to make an impact. He finished 8th, and still managed to collect a few points for Subaru. Tommi Makinen retired with battery trouble on Saturday. Yet another disappointing rally for Tommi — I don’t expect he’ll be returning next year. Hopefully Subaru can tweak the Impreza a bit before the remaining tarmac rallies so Solberg has a chance to get back into the championship hunt.

So, Richard Burns maintains a four point lead over Carlos Sainz and a five point lead over Marcus Gronholm. If Burns can race consistently over the course of the season, he should be able to hold off Gronholm and Sainz. With the points rules in place, Burns would not even have to win a rally this year, as long as either Sainz of Gronholm didn’t run the table (keep in mind Burns won the championship in 2001 winning only New Zealand).