Like Finland before it, Germany is a specialised rally, which favours drivers with a particular skill set. Unsurprisingly, those drivers with bags of European tarmac rally experience tend to do well, as do those with the ability to read grip levels in mixed conditions. Add previous form into the equation, however, and one man stands head and shoulders above the rest. Unfortunately for Mikko Hirvonen that man is Frenchman Sebastien Loeb.
The Frenchman has won the rally on every one of the six occasions it has been in the WRC. His sixth consecutive win last year broke another World Championship record - and you can bet he'll be out to break it again this year. And as this rally is the closest to Loeb's home in neighboring Alsace, there's a lot of pride at stake too.
But Loeb is unlikely to have the rally all his own way. Last year he faced some extremely tough competition from Belgian Francois Duval, who led at the end of the first day, despite battling Loeb's C4 in an older specification Xsara. This year Duval is back again, drafted in to the Stobart Ford Team, and at the wheel of the only car that's proved consistently capable of matching the pace of the C4, the Ford Focus RS WRC 07.
Then there's Loeb's Citroen Total teammate Dani Sordo. The Spaniard is another asphalt ace with a decent record - but some bad luck - on the German round. Sordo won the J-WRC class in a C2 in 2005, was second in the WRC competition in 2006, but retired with engine failure in 2007.
While asphalt has never been the preferred surface for BP Ford drivers Mikko Hirvonen or Jari-Matti Latvala, both showed good pace on the last outing in Monte Carlo. And there's every reason to think that things may have improved since then. Over the summer both drivers received coaching in the finer points of asphalt driving from a specialist tutor in the UK, while Latvala supplemented this with extra help from a Finnish touring car driver. And to give them an extra boost, in Germany Ford will unveil the 08 evolution of the Ford Focus RS, complete with a new turbo and the promise of more power.
Add to this the asphalt debut of Subaru's Impreza WRC2008 and Suzuki's upgraded SX4 WRC and we should be in for a cracking fight when the rally gets underway on Friday.
photo:Citroën Sport
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| Sebastien Loeb's Citroën C4 WRC in action. |
The Frenchman has won the rally on every one of the six occasions it has been in the WRC. His sixth consecutive win last year broke another World Championship record - and you can bet he'll be out to break it again this year. And as this rally is the closest to Loeb's home in neighboring Alsace, there's a lot of pride at stake too.
But Loeb is unlikely to have the rally all his own way. Last year he faced some extremely tough competition from Belgian Francois Duval, who led at the end of the first day, despite battling Loeb's C4 in an older specification Xsara. This year Duval is back again, drafted in to the Stobart Ford Team, and at the wheel of the only car that's proved consistently capable of matching the pace of the C4, the Ford Focus RS WRC 07.
Then there's Loeb's Citroen Total teammate Dani Sordo. The Spaniard is another asphalt ace with a decent record - but some bad luck - on the German round. Sordo won the J-WRC class in a C2 in 2005, was second in the WRC competition in 2006, but retired with engine failure in 2007.
While asphalt has never been the preferred surface for BP Ford drivers Mikko Hirvonen or Jari-Matti Latvala, both showed good pace on the last outing in Monte Carlo. And there's every reason to think that things may have improved since then. Over the summer both drivers received coaching in the finer points of asphalt driving from a specialist tutor in the UK, while Latvala supplemented this with extra help from a Finnish touring car driver. And to give them an extra boost, in Germany Ford will unveil the 08 evolution of the Ford Focus RS, complete with a new turbo and the promise of more power.
Add to this the asphalt debut of Subaru's Impreza WRC2008 and Suzuki's upgraded SX4 WRC and we should be in for a cracking fight when the rally gets underway on Friday.
photo:Citroën Sport