WRC
Rallye Deutschland: Chris Atkinson final summary
Australian Chris Atkinson completed a successful tarmac debut aboard a World Rally spec Subaru Impreza in the latest round of the World Rally Championship, the OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland over the weekend. Atkinson, 25, showed continued ...
Edited: Aug 30, 2005, 2:42 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Australian Chris Atkinson completed a successful tarmac debut aboard a World Rally spec Subaru Impreza in the latest round of the World Rally Championship, the OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland over the weekend.
Atkinson, 25, showed continued improvement throughout the three days of competition contested around Germany's oldest city, Trier, coming within one spot of claiming his fourth top ten finish of the year.
Such was the improvement by the young Queenslander and his West Australian co-driver Glenn Macneall throughout the weekend that the pair recorded times inside the top ten in six of the final 13 stages of the event.
The times set by Atkinson were comparable to many of his more experienced rivals, especially over the final two days where he consistently set times that were less than a second a kilometre behind World Champion, and rally winner Sebastien Loeb.
"It has been a perfect rally for us, we started out very cautiously with limited experience then picked up the pace as I felt more confident and comfortable in the car," said Atkinson.
"Driving on tarmac requires a completely different approach to what I am used to and over the weekend I felt a massive improvement in my driving style, and this was highlighted by the improvement in my times, they certainly dropped as I learnt more about how to handle different situations.
"I started the weekend nearly three seconds a kilometre behind the top drivers but by today that gap has been as little as 0.4 seconds a kilometre. I'm definitely happy with my progress and have met or exceeded all the targets we agreed before the start of the rally.
"There's a lot we can take away from here that will stand us in good stead for the tarmac rallies later in the year."
Following the event Atkinson paid tribute to his tarmac tutor Rob Wilson and his gravel crew, Pasi Hagstrom and Kaj Lindstrom who provided valuable information on any changes in the road conditions throughout the weekend.
"Over the past month I spent a couple of days with Rob Wilson, who has also worked with F1 and V8 drivers, while circuit racing is another style of driving to rallying on tarmac the principles and techniques are still the same. It was good to be able to put these principles into action and successfully use the techniques he has taught me," said Atkinson.
"For sure there is still a lot more improvement to come but I am very happy with the result over the weekend.
"Pasi and Kaj done a fantastic job, it was my first time using a gravel crew and they were a huge help, not only from the information on the road conditions but also the advice they provided me with over the weekend. Using such experienced and professional people was a huge help for me."
Loeb's victory enable the Frenchman to tighten his strangle hold on his second World Drivers Championship. The win is his fourth in a row on the tricky tarmac stages of Rallye Deutschland. His Citroen team-mate Francois Duval finished second ahead of Marcus Gronholm.
Loeb now holds a 32-point advantage over Gronholm with five rounds remaining the Championship. A gearbox problem cost Atkinson's team-mate Petter Solberg several minutes on the second day dropping him outside the top ten. The Norwegian recovered to finish seventh and hold on to third in the Championship standings, six points adrift of Gronholm.
Atkinson's fellow WRC rookie in the Subaru World Rally Team, Stephane Sarrazin finished in eighth position to earn his first Championship point since joining the team at the start of the year.
The next round of the Championship is the Wales Rally GB to be contested in the classic forests of South Wales on September 16-18.
-ca-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rallye Deutschland: Subaru final summary
Next article Loeb back on top with Rallye Deutschland victory
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Citroën World Rally Team
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
WRC
WRC
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
WRC
WRC
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
Latest news
Laurent Mekies extends contract as Red Bull's F1 team boss
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
45 min
Laurent Mekies extends contract as Red Bull's F1 team boss
Alex Palou to drive Indy NXT machinery in Chris Griffis Memorial Test at IMS
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 1 h
Alex Palou to drive Indy NXT machinery in Chris Griffis Memorial Test at IMS
The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend
WEC
WEC WEC
Barcelona
1 h
The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend
Into the unknown: What to expect from WEC's Barcelona debut
WEC
WEC WEC
Barcelona
3 h
Into the unknown: What to expect from WEC's Barcelona debut
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe