Hyundai Motorsports has made history by registering its first ever WRC win during Rally Germany, the all asphalt WRC Rally. Not only did they claim their maiden win but also made it a 1-2 finish in the final score. It was Thierry Neuville who drove the Hyundai i20 WRC to victory, His luck came when the two leaders ahead of him crashed on separate occasions giving him and his teammate a clear way.
VW drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Kris Meeke were in the lead looking at a 1-2 finish but a series of accidents prevented them from doing that. Latvala crashed heavily in SS15 leaving the lead to Meeke. Later on in the next stage Meeke hit a wall and left the lead to Neuville who would rally all the way to the finish for first place. Earlier on, veteran Sebastien Ogier retired after two crashes, including one that resulted in the red flagging of the stage. Nevertheless, Ogier still leads the standings with 44 points over Latvala.
Dani Sordo gave Hyundai the second place on the podium. He was the winner of last year’s event albeit driving for a different team. Excited, Neuville said;
I think we did an unbelievable job during all three days of the rally and I can only say thank you to our team,” he said. “They did a fantastic job after our roll on shakedown and I couldn’t believe we could do such a good result. We put pressure on the others and it paid off.
Andreas Mikkelsen took third place and giving VW a podium finish after all. He however missed a crash narrowly on the same location where Latvala crashed. Other than Ogier, Robert Kubica also retired after his gearbox jammed. The next stop for the WRC drivers will be Australia on September 11th.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6MJjO87JUI[/youtube]
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