Rallye
Deutschland, ninth round of WRC 2014 saw
the maiden win for the Korean car maker Hyundai WRT and also its star driver Thierry Neuville
winning his first ever rally in his career. Nobody expected that the rally
which began with a heavy crash in shakedown for Neuville will end up in taste
of Champagne! He gave the perfect gift for his mechanics who worked hard to put the car back on shape for the rally.
Leg 1 of
rally consisted of 6 special stages and as expected Ogier took the early lead.
The chasing pack was headed by Latvala who was only few seconds away. The whole
day Ogier found himself battling with his team mate Latvala for the lead, who
won two SS out of five and was only few seconds separated both drivers. It was
the last stage of the day and there came the big moment of rally, Ogier went
off the road, into the vineyards and that was end of rally for Ogier, thats
what pressure can do. This left Latvala with a healthy 37sec overnight lead
over Kris Meeke. Dani Sordo was in third 42.6sec off the lead. Andreas
Mikkelsen and Thierry Neuville rounded off the top five after end of Leg 1.
Leg 2 saw
drivers complete eight more stages. It was one job for Latvala to maintain his
lead and try to extend it more , which he did it very well by winning 5 stages
in the day and extended his lead by 56.6secs over Citroen driver Kris Meeke.
Thierry Neuville also had a good day in third just 4.3 sec away for second
spot. Robert Kubica won two stages and showed his tarmac pace but he was not
able to do that consistently and was in 10th overall. Sordo and
Mikkelsen were in fourth and fifth respectively finishing the day 2.
Leg 3 was a
short day with just 4 stages to go. It was all smooth sailing for Latvala who
had to just bring the car home to win the rally. But the Leg 3 drama had just
begun. Latvala went off the road in slippery conditions and the vineyards took
another victim. Now young Britt Kris
Meeke was leading, but just by 8.4 secs over Belgian Bullet Neuville. The very
next stage it was another surprise, this time Kris Meeke hit a wall and lost
his rear wheel and was out of rally. This handed the lead to Thierry Neuville.
Ahead of his team mate Dani Sordo by 35.7 secs. Now it was a Hyundai 1-2 and
they had to just bring the cars safely to finish line. And they did so. Which
meant it was maiden win for Hundai WRT and both their drivers finishing in top
two spots was a bonus. Andreas Mikkelsen ended the rally with podium finish.
Young Welshman Elfyn Evans impressed by his fourth place finish, by outpacing
his experienced team mate Mikko Hirvonen who finished fifth. Mads Ostberg
struggled to find pace and was happy with sixth place. Martin Prokop and Dennis Kuipers finished
seventh and eighth respectively. WRC 2 runners Pontus Tidemand and Ott
Tanak rounded off the top ten finishers.
The German vineyards gave us many surprises,
next trip is to the Australian forests. Untill then Happy Rallying!
