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Niegel hits problems but vows to fight on
 Suzuki Rallye Junior Team Germany driver Florian Niegel started day two of the Rallye Deutschland in a strong fifth place amongst the Junior World Championship runners but hit problems on the very first stage this morning.
He went off on towards the end of SS7, hitting the front-left wheel. The impact broke the wheel and damaged the exhaust system, meaning that he had to change the wheel on the stage. The damage to the exhaust of his Suzuki Swift Super 1600 also meant that he was down on power during the remaining stages of the morning, prior to service back in Trier. In total, more than 16 minutes were lost. Nonetheless, with his Suzuki now restored to its previous health, Niegel has promised to enjoy his home event to the full, and take away the maximum asphalt experience in preparation for the forthcoming rallies in Spain and Corsica. He is currently 10th in the Junior World Rally Championship classification, so still has a chance of coming away from Germany with some precious championship points in his pocket.
A second privately-entered Swift Super 1600 is driven by the Danish crew of Martin Johansen and Finn Thomsen, who are currently leading their home Super 1600 championship. They experienced no major problems over today's eight challenging stages and ended up 31st overall and fifth in class A6. The Group N Suzuki Swift Sport of Hugo Arellano re-started today under the superally regulations, and successfully ended the leg in 74th overall and second in class N2. A total of five stages and 84 competitive kilometres remain for the final day of action tomorrow, before the finish back in Trier at 13:40.
 News from Florian Niegel (Suzuki Swift n.43):
"The problem we had on the first stage this morning was my mistake: we just went wide and went off. These things happen. It meant that we had to change the wheel in the stage and then try to get going again, so we lost a lot of time. Before then, things had been going extremely well but there is still a lot that we can learn from this rally. It's fantastic to see so many spectators out: I think we have more people out and about here in Germany than many of the other older events!"
News from Martin Johansen (Suzuki Swift n.70):
"It's been another good day for us. We have tried just to stay out of trouble and improve on our position, and this tactic has worked well for us so far. We have one previous participation in Germany behind us, but these roads are very different to what we are accustomed to on the Danish Championship. On the first loop of stages we struggled; through the second loop it was much better. The car though is very good and very easy to drive: we have no complaints at all."
News from Hugo Arellano (Suzuki Swift n.110):
"We started off today under the super rally system and our plan now is to get to the end of the rally with no further problems. I'm pleased that we have survived the toughest day of the event with no major incidents: these stages are a lot of fun but they are also extremely challenging."
DATE |
SS 07 |
SS 08 |
SS 09 |
SS 10 |
SS 11 |
SS 12 |
SS 13 |
SS 14 |
Saturday 16 August |
19.12 |
16.16 |
14.22 |
30.38 |
19.12 |
16.16 |
14.22 |
30.38 |
Pos. |
Driver |
Time |
1 |
Sebastien Ogier |
2:47:30.1 |
0.0 |
2 |
Aaron Nikolai Burkart |
2:51:02.7 |
+3:32.6 |
3 |
Alessandro Bettega |
2:51:47.2 |
+4:17.1 |
4 |
Shaun Gallagher |
2:52:58.1 |
+5:28.0 |
5 |
Simone Bertolotti |
2:56:04.6 |
+8:34.5 |
6 |
Kevin Abbring |
3:08.46.4 |
+21:16.3 |
7 |
Andrea Cortinovis |
3:09:40.2 |
+22:10.1 |
8 |
Gilles Schammel |
3:10:50.4 |
+23:20.3 |
10 |
Florian Niegel |
3:11:11.8 |
+23:41.7 |
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