Taking the crews from Cologne to Trier, the opening leg of Rallye Deutschland featured just two stages. After this brief introduction, Dani Sordo and Mikko Hirvonen lie fourth and fifth overall in the DS3 WRCs of the Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team.
Having contested the shakedown on Wednesday afternoon, the crews headed for Cologne for the event’s ceremonial start. Late this afternoon, the cars finally set off on the Blankenheim stage, a brand new 23.54km test.
Dani Sordo set the fourth fastest time on this first stage, 15.4s behind the leader: “The first few drivers had left a lot of dirt and stones on the racing line after cutting the corners. In some places, I couldn’t even make out the road! I knew that this stage would be particularly difficult by I didn’t expect it to be like that.”
Just behind, Mikko Hirvonen finished fifth: “I dented one of the wheels on a bend. We ran over a hole that I had noted in recce, but didn’t expect to hit it so hard. Apart from that, I’m not on the pace as yet.”
The day concluded with another new stage, held in the hills around Trier. Sauertal continued the trend, enabling Dani and Mikko to consolidate their positions. “I feel good in the car and I’m pleased with my driving, but the others are going very quickly,” admitted the Spaniard. “I think it’ll be different tomorrow, the roads won’t get so dirty with the runs and I hope to get closer to the leaders.”
“The second stage was much better for me than the first,” commented a positive Mikko. “I think I was too cautious in the quick and muddy sections. I’ll have to be a bit bolder to up my pace. The car handled very well and I also think I can do better tomorrow.”
Taking part in his first tarmac rally for almost two years, Khalid Al Qassimi made a cautious start to his race. He currently lies 14th in the overall standings: “It wasn’t easy to get to grips with the DS3 WRC on such slippery roads. I had a bit of a scare right at the start of SS1 and that didn’t help boost my confidence.”
Competing in his DS3 RRC, Robert Kubica leads the WRC2 standings after going fastest on the first two stages: “I wasn’t expecting conditions to be like this, which are very different to what we had in testing and in the shakedown. I struggled to get the tyres up to temperature and as a result, the car tended to slide around.”