WRC 2012 ADAC Rally Deustchland : Day 1 - Mid Day Report - NEWS 📰 Autos, Business, Sports, India, Finance, Technology, Lifestyle, WRC, Health, Motorsport

After the first three stages done, with S.Loeb dominated the first half of the day. P.Solberg clinched to his second place, however, Mik...

After the first three stages done, with S.Loeb dominated the first half of the day. P.Solberg clinched to his second place, however, Mikko slid down to fifth as he was not confident with the car & was not in the right rhythm. Loeb was on hard compound since the first stage and still on the top of the lot, no wonder he is the unbeatable champion for so long. Overnight rain had left the morning stages damp, especially the sections under the trees, which was the main issue to the down order who suffer the wetness & mud drawn from the cars cutting around the corners.

Latvala took the third spot, and he too was not very happy with the setup of his car and was blaming himself to had it setup too soft. T.Neuville had been working well since the start of the season, and he stands at the fourth overall so far and is pretty happy with his driving as well as his car as he says that the driving is getting better by the stages since morning. D.Sordo was not very happy with his driving and the car setup and was down

E.Novikov retired on the first stage with some issues to his car's right rear wheel, as they were spotted inspecting it after pulling off the stage. P.Nobre too had his off and damaged his car after clipping on to concrete structure, and both of them would be starting tomorrow under Super Rally format. Mads had his share of issues from the very first stage till the mid-day service, as his car suffered braking issues. He even tried to bleed the lines, but was not helpful and also doesn't rule out his lack of experience on these kind of stages. Martin Prokop too faced braking issues in second stage onwards and had to adapt his driving style to the car handling due to it. However, he stopped on third stage maybe a puncture has held them up [*update : Martin's car caught fire on SS3 & he had to retire]. Ott Tanak finished the stage passing the ailing Martin's car & were flagged OK by the crew.

The Olympic medal winner Nasser is happy with his driving and the car & wants to keep it going the same way till the end and hopes for betterment of his standings. Chris Atkinson in his Mini WRC says he is pretty comfortable so far, and also he has to adapt to the different car every time in this season, who has driven all the three manufacturer cars.

Overall top 10 timings after SS3 [till mid-day service] is as below:

#	Entry Car	Gr. Cat.	Time Penalty	Diff. Diff. pr.	km/h s/km
1.	Loeb S. - Elena D. #1 Citroen DS3 WRC	WRC	41:22.1		100.0
2.	Solberg P. - Patterson C. #4 Ford Fiesta RS WRC	WRC	41:35.2	+13.1 +13.1	99.4 0.19
3.	Latvala J. - Anttila M. #3 Ford Fiesta RS WRC	WRC	41:40.9	+18.8 +5.7	99.2 0.27
4.	Neuville T. - Gilsoul N. #8 Citroen DS3 WRC	WRC	41:47.6	+25.5 +6.7	98.9 0.37
5.	Hirvonen M. - Lehtinen J. #2 Citroen DS3 WRC	WRC	41:50.1	+28.0 +2.5	98.8 0.41
6.	Sordo D. - Del Barrio C. #37 Mini Cooper WRC	WRC	41:57.0	+34.9 +6.9	98.6 0.51
7.	Tänak O. - Sikk K. #5 Ford Fiesta RS WRC	WRC	42:11.1	+49.0 +14.1	98.0 0.71
8.	Ostberg M. - Andersson J. #10 Ford Fiesta RS WRC	WRC	42:17.3	+55.2 +6.2	97.8 0.80
9.	Atkinson C. - Prévot S. #12 Mini Cooper WRC	WRC	42:44.6	+1:22.5 +27.3	96.7 1.20
10.	van Merksteijn jr. P. - Chevaillier E. #15 Citroen DS3 WRC	WRC	43:35.8	+2:13.7 +51.2	94.9 1.94