Subiesport Magazine - November 2008 - (Page 81)

RALLY DEUTSCHLAND ASPHALT, TARMAC, SEALED surface; whatever you want to call it, one thing’s for sure — Subaru rarely enjoys itself on it, until perhaps now. Whenever the WRC heads to Germany, Corsica or Spain or any other rally where the roads are black and smooth there’s usually an air of resignation amongst SWRT fans that they’ll take whatever they can get and in the meantime lets sit back and take in another masterclass from Sebastien Loeb — Germany was victory number seven in 2008, his seventh consecutive win on this event and his 43rd in the WRC. But wait, what’s this – Imprezas in the top six? In fact, make that two Impreza WRC2008s on their asphalt debuts finishing in the top six. In the wake of Loeb’s domination of the rally (he finished 47.7s ahead of his nearest rival) this might seem like small beer but for a team still bedding in and learning about a new car, it was progress indeed. Last year, Loeb was challenged on the roads around Trier by Francois Duval, the mercurial Belgian who has frittered around the edges of the WRC since losing his drive with Citroen a couple of years ago. For 2008 he was back, this time in a one-year-old Ford Focus and as keen as ever to make his mark. However, it was Loeb’s championship rival, Mikko Hirvonen, who looked the keenest challenger having suffered the embarrassment of losing to the world champion on his home event two weeks previously. Loeb simply brushed them all aside with a stunning display that reaped all but one of the first two days’ 14 stages. Three years ago, the Frenchman took all 14 stages of the Tour de Corse, another fast tarmac event; Germany 2008 was not too dissimilar and Loeb led from start to finish. Hirvonen tried to keep up but he didn’t have enough in the tank and in the end he even relinquished third spot 2008 ADAC Rallye Deutschland 10th Round, 15 - 17 August 2008. Trier, Germany. Day Two HQ Trier 10 14 Rally start time Local 08:30 GMT 06:30 Distances Special Liaison Combined Stages Leg 1 108.16 258.66 366.82 Leg 2 159.76 415.14 574.90 Leg 3 84.97 148.22 233.19 Total 352.89 822.02 1174.91 Kms 2008 Result - Top Eight 1 S Loeb 2 D Sordo 3 F Duval 4 M Hirvonen 5 P Solberg 6 C Atkinson 7 H Solberg 8 U Aava Citroën Citroën Ford Ford Subaru Subaru Ford Citroën Day One 3 6 9 2 5 13 8 15 17 12 7 11 Trier 1 4 16 18 19 Trier Key HQ Start Rally Stage Stage Rally Location HQ Start Finish Route 5 Day Three Special Rally Service Overnight Finish Stage Direction Location Stop Location Location to Duval. The Finn’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala mirrored Loeb’s success in the 2005 Tour de Corse stage, winning all the stages when he was competing in the PWRC. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do the same on this event and after thumping a hay bale on day two – “a stupid mistake,” he said – his challenge was effectively over. As was Gigi Galli’s, who was thrown into trees after clipping a rock on SS5 and ended up in the hospital with a badly-broken leg. Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson enjoyed their own SWRT battle, trading stage times and learning more about their cars’ abilities on this surface as the rally progressed. Solberg held the upper hand at the end of the rally to finish fifth with Atkinson one place behind. Showing such early potential, it would have been great to see how much progress the team made with this car by the time the WRC returned to Germany next year. However, in its infinite wisdom the sport’s governing body has taken a hatchet to the calendar for 2009 and Rally Germany, along with other great events – step forward Monte Carlo, Sweden and Great Britain – has been canned. A stupid mistake, as Jari-Matti might say. —David Hobbs SUBIESPORT MAGAZINE 81

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Subiesport Magazine - November 2008 Contents Editor Letters Readers’ Rides New Products Subaru News 2009 WRX Test Drive Back on Easy Street Brothers in Boost Treasure Island ESPN X Games 14 Subiefest 3 Subie Extravaganza WWJCD WRC Rally Finland WRC Rally Deutschland Rally America: Ojibwe Forest Rally America: Colorado Where to buy Subiesport Orange Invasion - Europe 2007 STI Intake Test Dreadnought Widebody Install p2 Ad Directory Spotted!

Subiesport Magazine - November 2008

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