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Rally Germany - Finish
Germany provides a good result for the championship
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia finished Rally Germany on the podium with 17 precious points in the bag – a positive outcome from the viewpoint of the title chase.
This traditional summer event on tarmac began in very wet conditions, which made the course treacherous and tyre selection problematic. In view of the awkward circumstances of the first day, Sébastien Ogier lost a little time, but managed to hold on to a promising fourth place with short time differences between the leaders.
This turned into third place going into the second leg when his closest championship rival, Thierry Neuville retired. Maintaining a consistent speed, the M-Sport driver thus endeavoured to hold on to a top-three finish while seeking some extra points in the Power Stage, a dual objective that was attained on Sunday. Sébastien Ogier returns to the top of the championship table with a 17-point lead over his nearest challenger with three rallies to go.
Sébastien Ogier:
“There’s always a degree of disappointment when you don’t win, even more so for us here, as our objective returning to a tarmac surface was to fight for a victory. But we also have to be careful and keep in mind our championship position, and from that point of view, the result is a positive one.”
"The start of the rally, in very awkward conditions, was fairly difficult for us. Due to a problem that was beyond the team's control, we were unable to use the gearbox and differential settings that had been validated during our tests. M-Sport did everything possible to help us find the best compromise, but it still meant we had to make do with a less than optimal solution, particularly in the slippery and treacherous conditions of the first day."
"Added to this was the fact that, with the bad weather on Friday afternoon, we didn’t dare to use wet weather tyres. We haven’t had much experience with this compound, so it would have been risky for us to use them, but it turned out that it would have been the best choice. In these circumstances we managed to limit the damage throughout the day and in the end our only real regret was spinning on the day’s final stage. That cost us about 20 seconds which were reflected in the final standings."
“The physiognomy of the rally changed on Saturday morning when we saw Thierry stopped by the roadside because we knew then that we had an opportunity to make headway in the championship. We kept up a quick pace despite the big gap between us and Ott, who kept the door closed by driving a flawless and consistent race. We did everything we could to consolidate our place on the podium while going for points on the Power Stage, which we managed to obtain. It wasn’t the calmest of weekends, but we nevertheless managed to take back our championship position with a lead of 17 points. That’s a very nice outcome.”
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