Folks,
Here's the lowdown on WRC Deutschland 2004, courtesy AXN's TV coverage:
-Citroen's Sebastien Loeb n. Daniel Elena, winner of this event since it appeared on the WRC calendar in 2002, kept his cool in the treacherously changing conditions to come out on top with a 29.1s lead over Ford's Francois Duval n. Stephan Prevot, followed by Citroen's Carlos Sainz n. Marc Marti at +1:09.5s.
-Duval pulled it of rather clean this time despite a broken clutch on SS5, which meant manual gearshift and no handbrake.
-Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm n. Timo Rautiainen crashed out due to misjudging the rally's *very first* corner.
-Roman Kresta n. Jan Tomanek was a bright ray of hope for Skoda until he crashed out @ 7th in SS9...
-...which was canelled after the very scary crash of Mitsubishi's Gilles Panizzi n. Herve Panizzi @ 6th. No known major injuries.
-Sainz lost time on SS10 with engine management problems.
-Subaru's Petter Solberg n. Phil Mills had by far the worst crash @ 4th at the beginning of SS12... even the codriver's side of the rollcage collapsed! (Again, thankfully, no major injuries). Stage cancelled. See pic.
-Ford's Markko Martin n. Michael Park seems to have recovered well from his horrible Argentina crash, finishing 4th overall with some very impressive stage times.
-Peugeot and Skoda both had good runs with two 307s in 5th & 6th and Toni Gardemeister's Fabia @ 7th overall.
-Drivers' standings: Loeb (76), Martin (47), Sainz (46).
-Mfgr's standings: Citroen (125), Ford (96), Subaru (67).
-Next up: Japan 3-5 Sept.
--oversteer--