Pirelli on podium in Germany

Trier (D), 28 August 2005 - The Peugeot-Pirelli of Marcus Gronholm has finished third on the all-asphalt Rally Deutschland, round 11 of the World Championship. His team mate Markko Martin, who set a fastest stage time on the final leg, is fourth. A highlight of the event was some excellent performances from the Mitsubishi-Pirelli of Gigi Galli, who enjoyed a frenetic battle with Ford driver Roman Kresta to take fifth place on the final day. The Subaru-Pirelli of Petter Solberg finishes seventh, just ahead of his team mate Stephane Sarrazin. The Frenchman set some notable stage times, in particular a second-fastest, but he was delayed by a broken driveshaft at the end of the final day. Sebastien Loeb took his and Citroen's fourth win in Germany from his team mate Francois Duval, leading from the start in these highly-specialised asphalt conditions. The stages on leg three were wider and more flowing than they had been on the previous day, but despite the dry weather, they still contained some extremely tricky and slippery sections. Most of the Pirelli-equipped runners from Subaru, Peugeot and Mitsubishi used Pirelli's RX7 tyres for the first loop of stages before moving onto the harder RX5 for the warmer conditions of the afternoon. The Rally Deutschland was also the sixth round of the Junior World Rally Championship. The category was won by another Citroen - this time a C2 running on Pirelli control tyres - of Daniel Sordo. Pirelli's rally manager Fiorenzo Brivio commented: " Today we concentrated on gaining information which will be useful for future asphalt events. We are definitely working along the right lines, as can be seen from Markko Martin's fastest time today, and another strong performance from Gigi Galli." Rally Deutschland (11/16) - Final Classification 1 Loeb-Elena - Citroen Xsara WRC - 3h27m13.2s 2 Duval-Smeets - Citroen Xsara WRC - +37.4s 3 Gronholm-Rautiainen - Peugeot 307 WRC - +2m04.8s 4 Martin-Park - Peugeot 307 WRC - +4m09.4s 5 Galli-d'Amore - Mitsubishi Lancer WRC - +5m03.6s 6 Kresta-Tomanek - Ford Focus WRC - +5m12.3s 7 Solberg-Mills - Subaru Impreza WRC - +7m48.1s 8 Sarrazin-Giraudet - Subaru Impreza WRC - +8m34.1s 9 Pons-del Barrio - Citroen Xsara WRC - +9m09.2s 10 Rovanpera-Pietilainen - Mitsubishi Lancer WRC - +9m11.6s Drivers Championship: 1 Loeb 93; 2 Gronholm 61; 3 Solberg 55; 4 Martin 53; 5 Gardemeister 47; 6 Rovanpera 22; 7 Duval 16; 8 Kresta 13; 9 Stohl 12; 10 Sainz 11; 11 H Solberg 9; 12 Panizzi 7 Manufacturers: 1 Peugeot 123; 2 Citroen 117; 3 Ford 72; 4 Subaru 62; 5 Mitsubishi 47; 6 Skoda 8 Next round: Rally Great Britain (GB), 16-18 September