Stobart sail through opening stages of Rally Germany
With three stages of ADAC Rally Deutschland completed this morning both nominated points scoring crews of the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team sit inside the top-ten positions. Leading the charge is Belgian François Duval who lies in fourth while team-mate Gigi Galli occupies ninth.
Henning Solberg has begun his opening day charge in solid form heading into service A in eighth position. Brit Matthew Wilson has also had a successful morning coming through all three stages unscathed to lie 14th.
The 21.22 kilometre opening test saw Duval fourth fastest with his only complaint this morning, a slight delay in the electronic gear shift on stages 2 and 3. Galli too was not without issues and lost time on stage 2 when he misjudged a hairpin and was forced to select reverse to help him around the tight corner.
This afternoon will see a repeat loop of the three stages run this morning to total 108.16 kilometres of competitive action for day 1 of Rally Germany.
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team Driver Gigi Galli said:
“I’m just finding it hard to get into a rhythm as the stages are very difficult and it’s hard to find the braking points. The stages are narrow and fast and because I couldn’t get into a good rhythm I spun twice on the second stage. There is no problem with car it’s just I need to improve the feeling within myself.”
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team Driver François Duval said:
“I’m just getting used to the car, we didn’t have a lot of testing and it’s the first time for me on these new soft Pirellis. The car is under-steering a little and I’m not getting things right on the slower hairpins. The gear changes on stages 2 and 3 were a bit slow and the roads are quite dirty for me as well.”
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team Driver Henning Solberg said:
“We’ve made a good start this morning and I’m in a much better position than I thought I would be. On the last stage we cut in too early at a hairpin near the start and I thought we had a puncture but when we got to the end of the stage everything was fine. We are taking things slowly and trying to build up the speed over the day.”
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Team Driver Matthew Wilson said:
“The car is feeling really good but I don’t want to push too hard too early as we will look to increase the pace gradually. The stages are narrow and difficult and we didn’t get into a good rhythm in the middle stage; I don’t know if there was anything wrong but it just didn’t feel right.”
Leaderboard after SS3
1. S Loeb/D ElenaF Citroën C4 30m15.3s
2. M Hirvonen/J LehtinenFIN Ford Focus RS +15.3sec
=. D Sordo/M MartiE Citroën C4 +15.3sec
4. F Duval/P PivatoB Ford Focus RS +27.9sec
5. C Atkinson/S Prevot AUS Subaru Impreza +31.0sec
6. P Solberg/P Mills N Subaru Impreza +32.4sec
7. J M Latvala/M Attila FIN Ford Focus RS +35.8sec
8. H Solberg/C Menkerud N Ford Focus RS +55.2sec
9. G Galli/G BernacchiniI Ford Focus RS +55.4sec
10. U Aava/K SikkEE Citroën C4 +1m02.0sec
14. M Wilson/S Martin GB Ford Focus RS +1m36.8sec