The battle for the title in the German Rally Championship is coming to a head. After the summer break, the ADAC Saarland-Palatinate Rallye on August 19th and 20th is the scene of the fifth of a total of seven stops of the season.
In the top class DRM, four driver duos have pulled away from the field and are within 24 points of each other. The DRM Nationals, formerly the ADAC Rallye Masters, are even closer, with just eleven points separating first and fourth. The spectators can look forward to spectacular and exciting rallying around St. Wendel, where, as in the previous season, only a few seconds will ultimately decide between victory and defeat.
Parallel to the DRM, a round of the ADAC Opel e-Rallye Cup, the world's first electric e-brand cup, will be held at the ADAC Saarland-Palatinate Rallye.
Philip Geipel and Katrin Becker-Brugger lead the table in the top class DRM with ten points. The leading duo wants to defend this lead after the summer break at the ADAC Saarland-Palatinate Rally. Philip Geipel: "As in the Rallye Mittelrhein, Marijan Griebel is the man to beat in St. Wendel. We want to keep up the pace at the front and collect as many points as possible to stay ahead. I drove my first rally in Saarland in 2019 and got along well. Unfortunately, we had to retire with a defect last year. I can still well remember that we broke all the records on the jump crest in the wind farm. We want to help the people with the Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo simply put on a great show."Julius Tannert and Frank Christian (VW Polo GTI R5) have their sights firmly set on the championship, but the second-placed drivers have not yet managed to pull off the big hit. "We just have to win if we want to get the title in the end. The ADAC Saarland-Palatinate Rallye is demanding and partly takes place on former World Championship tracks. It's going to be a fast affair and we definitely want to be ahead of Philip on the podium The man of the hour is the current DRM champion Marijan Griebel. The 33-year-old, with Tobias Braun in the cockpit of a Citroën C3 Rally2, is confident about his home rally after two wins in a row, because he lives in Hahnweiler, just under 20 minutes by car from St. Wendel. "Of course I want to fight for victory, because I know the rally well. It's a mix of asphalt and gravel passages, leads over former World Championship routes and is quite hilly. As a local hero, I'm considered the favorite, but I know that here. If I can confirm that in the end, then everything is fine," says Marijan Griebel, who is in third place ahead of the combination Dominik Dinkel/Mayrhofer/Winklhofer (Ford Fiesta Rallye2).
Martin Christ (Opel Corsa Rally4) extended his lead in the DRM2 class with another win at the last stop on the Middle Rhine. Nevertheless, the 42-year-old remains cautious, because his participation in the ADAC Saarland-Palatinate Rally 2021 went wrong. "We had a difficult journey there last year, first had to fetch the rally car and after 1,200 kilometers we somehow lost concentration. I even drove out a lap too early on the circuit, which has never happened to me in 21 years of motorsport. We But this time we are well prepared, have improved a few things on the car and my regular co-driver Heinke is back in the cockpit. We have all the components together and want to be up there again." The runners-up Raffael Sulzinger and Lisa Kiefer have to do the same, because the duo is already 30 points behind the leaders in the Ford Fiesta Rally4 and urgently needs a win. The same applies to René Noller and Stephan Kopczyk in the Opel Corsa Rally4, who dropped out at the last championship round. The DRM Nationals are very close. Sebastian Wolf and Andreas Luther (Mitsubishi Evo X) have taken the lead again with a third place in the NC1 category at Mittelrhein. The duo Henrik Hansen/Mark Schuitert in the Peugeot 106 S16 follows with a gap of only three points and again only two points behind are Andreas Dahms and Paul Schubert (Porsche 911), who at the same time confidently lead the DRM Classic. Dennis Rostek (Skoda Fabia R5) can start relaxed in the Gentlemen Trophy. The ADAC Saarland-Palatinate Rallye is the last station of the new special classification and the Bückeburger has been the champion since the last tour stop. Dennis Rostek has won all four races so far and wants to keep this perfect record with a final victory in St. Wendel. René Noller leads the Pirelli Junior classification, followed by Jonas Ertz and Nico Knacker in second and third place.
The ADAC Saarland-Palatinate Rally gets off to a great start on Friday afternoon (August 19) at 5 p.m. in front of the historical backdrop of the Schlossplatz in St. Wendel. After that, things get serious for the participants, the Haupersweiler and KÜS Windpark special tests each have to be completed twice. Another ten sections follow on the second stage on Saturday, with a total of 14 special stages with a length of 141 kilometers on the program. The highlight for all rally fans is the spectacular circuit at the Freisen wind farm. Tickets for the special stage on Friday evening are available online at adac-saarland.de/tickets-events. All other special stages are freely accessible in compliance with the safety areas, exclusion zones and environmental protection zones. The finish line takes place on Saturday evening at 7 p.m. on the Schlossplatz in St. Wendel.
The highlights of the German Rally Championship can be seen exclusively on free-to-air television on n-tv. Every weekend after the racing events, the news channel broadcasts the 30-minute DRM magazine "PS - DRM Deutsche Rallye-Meisterschaft" on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Alternatively, the magazine can be accessed free of charge at any time in the n-tv media center or the RTL streaming platform.
