-
Central Europe Rally,
- Leg 4,
- 23 April
2008
Volkswagen drivers increase pressure with another leg win
Wolfsburg (23 April 2008). In the Central Europe Rally, held in Hungary
and Romania, Volkswagen remains in a promising position when it comes to
securing the overall win: on the leg from Debrecen to Veszprem, Carlos
Sainz/Michel Périn (E/F) gave Volkswagen the fourth consecutive leg win,
thus working their way up to fifth position in the overall rankings. The
2007 overall FIA Cross Country World Cup winners now lie some four
minutes behind in the overall rankings, thus keeping their chance of
winning the event alive. At the same time, their team-mates, Giniel de
Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (RSA/D) and Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk
(D/D) also reduced their gaps to the overall leader, Stéphane
Peterhansel (Mitsubishi), by finishing third and fourth respectively.
With three more days to go to the finish at Lake Balaton, they now hold
second and third positions in the overall rankings and increased the
pressure.
Being yesterday’s leg winners, Giniel de Villiers and his co-driver Dirk
von Zitzewitz were the first to start into the two difficult special
stages of the day. Special stages that featured challenging navigation
and narrow sections, thus taking the competitors to their very limits.
Despite this handicap, the South African-German pairing succeeded in
reducing their gap to the leader by about two and a half minutes.
The battle for the lead remains exciting: Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk
(D/D) reduced their gap to the leader once again. By holding third
position in their first competition with the Volkswagen Race Touareg,
they still are on a promising way to securing a podium finish. Carlos
Sousa/Andreas Schulz (P/D) in the Race Touareg of customer team Lagos
lost some time due to a navigation mistake but defended their ninth
position in the overall ranking, nevertheless.
Kris Nissen (Volkswagen Motorsport Director)
"Today, we may be really happy with what we have achieved. We reduced
the gap to the leader and with Giniel de Villiers, Dieter Depping and
Carlos Sainz, our chances of winning the event continue to be promising.
Both drivers and co-drivers did a truly excellent job in today’s
difficult leg. The Race Touaregs had no technical problems whatsoever,
today. A very good day for Volkswagen, in this rally.”
#201 – Carlos Sainz (E), 1st place (leg) / 5th place overall
"With today’s leg win we made up for a lot of the lost ground but
actually, it could have been even more. For a short moment, my co-driver
Michel Périn and I misunderstood each other, hence, we took a wrong turn
and lost about a minute. Still: being just four minutes behind,
everything is possible for us in this rally.”
#203 – Giniel de Villiers (RSA), 3rd place (leg) / 2nd place overall
"A truly difficult leg but I’m more than happy with our result. The
navigation was demanding as the road book wasn’t always precise, today.
Opening the track never is easy, therefore, we may be proud of what
we’ve achieved today. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, we will have
to contest two long and difficult legs and we want to use this
opportunity to keep on closing the gap. Today we leaped up to second
position and before the event will be over, on Saturday, we want to gain
this final place, too.”
#209 – Carlos Sousa (P), 11th place (leg) / 9th place overall
"Our start into the day was really good. We made some suspension
changes, resulting in an even better handling. But we suffered another
dose of bad luck, today. We took a wrong turn and afterwards, it took us
quite a lot of time to find back to the right track.”
#213 – Dieter Depping (D), 4th place (leg) / 3rd place overall
"Today, the navigation was really difficult. We lost our way once, thus
losing two minutes. But thanks to the competitive Race Touareg, we could
make up for some time despite our mistake. Particularly in the first
special stage, everything worked perfectly: driver, co-driver and car.”
Standings after leg 4, Debrecen (HU) – Veszprem (HU); 150/679 km Leg
4/Total
Pos. Team Vehicle Leg 4 Overall time
1. Stéphane Peterhansel/Jean-Paul Cottret (F/F); Mitsubishi Pajero
Evolution; 1h40m48s (6th); 5h10m35s
2. Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (RSA/D); Volkswagen Race
Touareg 2; 1h38m19s (3rd) + 1m44s
3. Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk (D/D); Volkswagen Race Touareg 2;
1h40m41s (4th) + 2m01s
4. Nasser Al-Attiyah/Tina Thörner (QA/S); BMW X3 CC; 1h36m56s (2nd) +
3m35s
5. Carlos Sainz/Michel Périn (E/F); Volkswagen Race Touareg 2; 1h36m50s
(1st) + 3m54s
6. Luc Alphand/Gilles Picard (F/F); Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution;
1h42m06s (9th) + 4m24s
7. Nani Roma/Lucas Cruz Senra (E/E); Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution;
1h42m05s (8th) + 4m53s.
8. Robby Gordon/Andy Grider (USA); Hummer; 1h42m20s (10th) + 7m05s
9. Carlos Sousa/Andreas Schulz (P/D); Volkswagen Race Touareg 2;
1h45m46s (11th) + 17m28s
10. Bruno Saby/Alain Guehennec (F/F); BMW X3 CC; 1h47m18s (13th) +
25m47s
Public Volkswagen Motorsport website:
www.volkswagen-motorsport.com
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