CITROEN PLANS RALLY GERMANY PUSH
French team boss Pierre Budar wants three-time winner and champion Sebastien Ogier to score big points
Citroen is hopeful that an engine upgrade and understanding its asphalt performance better will give Sebastien Ogier the chance to fight for victory on Rally Germany.
After strong start to the 2019 season where Ogier’s Citroen return yielded victories in two of the first three rounds, the partnership has not reached the top step of the podium since Rally Mexico back in March.
In that time, Toyota driver Ott Tanak has taken three wins giving him the series lead by 22 points over Ogier, while Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville has taken two wins despite trailing Tanak and Ogier in the championship.
Ogier took second behind Neuville on Rally Corsica in April, and Citroen’s team boss Pierre Budar says work done since then – including an extensive four-day test – should allow Ogier to take the challenge to his rivals.
“After our second place in Finland [with Esapekka Lappi], the aim will be to keep up the momentum here at this rather unusual Tarmac event,” said Budar of Germany.
“We’ll be looking to secure at least another podium and also for Sebastien to score as heavily as possible for the championship.
“Since the last Tarmac rally in Corsica, we’ve understood a few things on this surface and have worked incredibly hard to correct the issues.
“I’m therefore hoping that we’ll be back towards the top of the leaderboard at this round, especially as it is a rally that we know very well.
“We’ll also be introducing an engine upgrade on the C3 WRC at this event.”
Ogier added: “My aim coming into this round in Germany, a rally where I have always performed very well, is to secure a good result and shift the momentum a little bit in the championship.”
Tanak’s victory hunt
Tanak enters Rally Germany as the clear favourite after a dominant Rally Finland win. He won Rally Finland, Germany and Turkey in a WRC hat-trick last year, and his form has only improved in 2019.
But the Toyota driver says it will be a “big challenge” to follow last year’s Rally Germany win, which was “one of the most difficult wins in my career”.
Toyota driver – who is expected to renew his contract in the next month, rejecting competition from Hyundai and M-sport – is chasing a third successive win in Germany, a feat last achieved by Sebastien Loeb in 2007-2009.
“Germany is obviously a rally that
I like a lot,” said Tanak. “Martin [Jarveoja, co-driver] and I have won there two years in a row and our target this year is definitely to make it three.
“It’s certainly not an easy rally. I think last year was one of the most difficult wins in my career, as the competition was very strong and I had to push really hard from the beginning.
“It’s a big challenge for a driver to have so many different types of road in one rally, and to try to be fast on all of them and not make any mistakes.
“We know that the weather is often a big factor as well, and it can be very hard to predict.”
A Tanak win would be a big help to Toyota’s manufacturer championship bid. Both Tanak’s team-mates Jari-matti Latvala and Kris Meeke made mistakes while following Tanak in the top three in Finland, and while Tanak won comfortably and Latvala recovered to third, Meeke’s retirement means the squad is 24 points adrift of Hyundai in the standings.
Sordo back after win
Hyundai’s Dani Sordo makes a WRC return in Germany where he won in 2013, in a bid to bolster the series leaders’ points tally. There was talk that Sebastien Loeb would contest the event for the team, but Sordo got the nod. The Spaniard won Rally Sardinia in June but hasn’t rallied in the WRC since.
He said: “I have won here [Germany] in the past and been on the podium many times. Normally I am on the pace every year, so I hope this year will be the same.”
Sordo lines up alongside Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen – who makes his first asphalt outing since Monte Carlo after being dropped for Corsica – in a line-up that remains the same for Rally Turkey next month.
Rally Germany has 19 stages totaling just over 213 miles. Saturday provides the biggest chunk of the mileage in the Baumholder military zone, which includes the infamous tank-stopping hinkelstein concrete blocks that have caught some of the WRC’S best drivers out.