Sébastien Ogier ends Loeb's reign

Citroën will have outrageously dominated the Rally from Germany while Ford will have experienced a particularly difficult ordeal. The chevron brand wins its 78th victory in WRC, a new record in the discipline and offers his eighth consecutive victory.

The French manufacturer's drivers took a considerable lead during the first stage by opting for the right choice of tires on a wet road. The leaders of Citroën then decided to freeze the positions but Sébastien Loeb, then leading the German Rally, suffered a puncture in the famous Panzerplatte special and left control of the event to his teammate. “The series of victories had to end one day and today is the day”, comments the Alsatian, who can console himself with his victory in the Power Stage.

Dani Sordo offers the first podium for the return of Mini, which was making its first rally on asphalt. “I'm really happy, we will try to continue these performances. It’s a very good start and the team is splendid”, rejoices the Spaniard.

Mikko Hirvonen offers fourth place to the Ford team which experienced a trying rally following numerous problems with the two Fiesta RS WRCs. Jari-Matti Latvala will have accumulated multiple problems between punctures and mechanical problems. Ford leaves big points to his rival and sees his title chances diminish further.

Petter Solberg (Citroën) finished in a modest fifth place, without ever having managed to find the right rhythm in the German special stages. The Norwegian was under pressure from Kris Meeke (Mini), who retired in the penultimate special of the rally following an alternator failure. The Briton leaves sixth place to Kimi Räikkönen (Citroën), who achieved a good result in Germany.

For his first participation in the WRC, Pierre Campana experienced numerous problems, particularly with the brakes of his Mini JCW WRC from the Drive Pro team. The Bastiais driver still achieved some good times but he only finished in 18th position behind Ken Block (Ford).

Find our special correspondent's analysis of the German Rally in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, on sale from Wednesday.