Dani Sordo secured his first WRC victory after almost 10 years of trying when he won an enthralling ADAC Rallye Deutschland.
The Spaniard was the ‘nearly’ man of the WRC after 34 podiums from 106 starts. However, the 30-year-old came good to beat Thierry Neuville by 53.0sec following a final stage showdown that was only settled when the Belgian went off the road 3km from the finish.
Sordo, the 2005 junior world champion, started the final Dhrontal test in the narrow and twisty Mosel vineyards with a 3.0sec advantage in his Citroen DS3.
He stretched his advantage in the early part of the 24.58km stage, before Neuville fought back. The duo were tied at the final split point with just over 4km remaining, but Neuville’s hopes were dashed when his Ford Fiesta RS went off the road.
Jari-Matti Latvala lost the lead of Rally Germany after crashing on the second attempt of the Stein & Wein stage. The Finn eventually finished down in 10th, while team-mate Sebastien Ogier came away with 3 points as he won the powerstage.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Dani Sordo Citroen 3h15m19.4s 2. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford +53.0s 3. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen +2m36.1s 4. Martin Prokop Czech Ford +8m00.8s 5. Robert Kubica PH Citroen +9m01.3s* 6. Elfyn Evans M-Sport Ford +9m14.2s* 7. Jari-Matti Latvala VW +9m55.0s 8. Hayden Paddon ASM Skoda +13m01.2s* 9. Mads Ostberg M-Sport Ford +13m28.1s 10. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford +15m17.9s