Nick Koan

iTrader: (3)

Full Story: http://rally.racing-live.com/en/head...22154212.shtml

Sebastien Loeb dominated the 2004 Rally Deutschland, his third consecutive victory in Germany. Francois Duval brings his Ford Focus to a second place finish preventing Citroën to get another one-two result. The two Xsaras are nonetheless on the podium since Carlos Sainz finishes in third position. Loeb is now nearly thirty points in front of his opponents in the drivers' championship and Citroën has a comparable lead in the constructors' championship.

Loeb's fifth victory of the season
By winning for the third consecutive time in Germany, Sebastien Loeb gets his fifth victory of the season: Monte Carlo, Sweden, Cyprus, Turkey and now Germany! These wins, combined with a pair of second place finishes in Greece and Argentina put the Frenchman way ahead of his rivals in the championship.

Loeb lead the race from start to finish, except for the first stage, which was won by his teammate Carlos Sainz. A superb performance by Sebastien Loeb, who is dominating the field this season.

Citroën take 16 additional points in Germany, helping them to increase their lead in the constructors' championship. Loeb has a major role in this success but Carlos Sainz is also part of the winning formula. The Spaniard is on the podium once again and finds himself in third place in the drivers' championship, just one point behind Markko Martin.

-more-

Nick Koan

iTrader: (3)

Duval making progress in the championship
Markko Martin is considered the number one driver at Ford. Because of his teammate's status in the team, Francois Duval has sometimes no choice but to drive more conservatively than Martin. But this time Duval was much better than Martin and was the only one to keep up with the Citroën drivers. Unfortunately the Belgian encountered slight mechanical problems and lost a bit of time in the first part of the event.

Duval didn't give up and continued to attack, determined to catch Carlos Sainz in second position. His perseverance was rewarded when Sainz made a mistake in the last stage of leg two, enabling Duval to move ahead of him. The Belgian is now sixth in the championship but only eight points behind his teammate Martin who is second in the standings.

A bad combination of factors influenced Markko Martin's race in Germany. Wrong tyre choices, an excess of cautiousness on a very difficult surface and the not too distant memory of his accident in Argentina were all elements that can explain Martin's discreet performance this weekend. Despite that, the Estonian completed the race and scores a decent fourth position. Martin finds himself in second place in the championship.

Mission accomplished for Robert
Cedric Robert knew that it would be difficult to win on his first very race behind the wheel of the 307 WRC. The Frenchman aimed to finish in the top 5 and reached his objective. Robert is the best Peugeot driver in Germany and brings four points to his team.

Freddy Loix was not able to fight for the top positions. The Belgian's 307 suffered from misfires during the first leg of the rally, leaving him far behind in the standings. Loix drove aggressively in the last two legs of the race to reach the finish line in sixth place, not too far behind Robert.

Unfortunately Marcus Gronholm slid off the road in the very first corner of the event. A costly mistake that Peugeot will not forget easily.

Two more points for Gardemeister
Skoda made their WRC return in Finland. It was an impressive come-back that demonstrated the Fabia's clear progress. Skoda's weapon now seems to be competitive enough to battle head to head against the best WRC cars, as confirmed this weekend by Armin Schwarz's stage win and Roman Kresta's excellent results in the first part of the race.

Kresta wasn't able to reach the finish, the Czech driver went off the road in the first stage of leg two. Armin Schwarz had ups and downs this weekend, the German driver having to deal with a few mechanical problems. Armin finished in eleventh place, after a long battle with Nicolas Vouilloz.

Toni Gardemeister achieves the best result of the Skoda drivers by finishing in the points just like he did earlier in Finland.

Disappointing weekend for Subaru
Petter Solberg desperately needed a good result in Germany to keep his championship hopes alive. But the reigning World Champion made a mistake once again and went off the road. With no point in Germany, Solberg falls down to fourth place in the championship.

Mikko Hirvonen did his best on a surface that he doesn't appreciate too much. The Finn scores one point after a good battle against Stephane Sarrazin. The Frenchman performed brilliantly in his very first WRC event, competing against more experienced drivers with superior cars.

A rough rally for Mitsubishi
A race to forget for Mitsubishi! The team left Germany with two seriously wrecked Lancer WRCs. Dani Sola set a very promising third fastest time in the first stage of the race but the Spaniard's weekend ended in the following timed event when he went off the road.

Gilles Panizzi also achieved good results on his favourite surface but the Frenchman also went off the road, putting an end to his performance.


Hugo GIGUERE
CAPSIS International

Full story from www.rally-live.com
http://rally.racing-live.com/en/head...22154212.shtml

Nick Koan

iTrader: (3)

Sorry dude. I wait until after it airs the first time on SpeedTV, but then try and get the news up soon.

After it airs on SpeedTV for the first time, I really don't feel there is a need for a spoiler warning.

Nick Koan

iTrader: (3)

The Sunday the rally ends, usually at 9pm eastern (6pm for me in Pacific time) they show the Rallies on Speed TV. The next rally, Rally Japan, will be on this Sunday (9/5). The complete WRC schedule is listed in a sticky in the Motorsports forum.

https://www.i-club.com/forums/rally-49/rallying-info-links-738/

Also, for re-plays, check out SpeedTV.com