Loeb's nine-timer!

This time last year, most of the rallying community was still in shock after the weekend of Rallye Deutschland 2011. Something unthinkable happened, Sebastian Loeb was beaten in Germany.

From the third stage of the rally, Loeb looked like he was heading towards a record ninth Rally Deutschland win, until a puncture dictated otherwise. Citroen team-mate, and bitter rival, Sebastian Ogier won in the end.

However, even with Ogier in an S2000 Skoda, Loeb's win wasn't guaranteed (a foolish man would have bet against him however). The Fords of Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg have been gathering a lot of pace on tarmac, and the ever consistent Mikko Hirvonen found himself in the sister factory Citroen this year.

It never made a difference, Loeb once again blasted the opposition into (and probably out of the other side of) the weeds. Few people would bet against him losing a mammoth 54 point lead with only 112 points available from the remaining four rounds, and that includes maximum Power Stage points.

“It was a hard rally, the conditions were extremely difficult, which meant I had some very difficult tyre choices to make. We had a good drive, a perfect car and I made no mistake. Winning the Power Stage also meant this was a perfect weekend. I also had a lot of support from the fans.” said the World Championship leader.

Jari-Matti Latvala had his best ever finish on Tarmac on board his Ford Fiesta RS WRC in second place, albeit a full 2 mins off Loeb's scorching pace. Latvala's only problem throughout the rally was a bonnet catch failure, which lead to the bonnet almost opening on one of the high speed sections of SS13.

Mikko Hirvonen took third place in the sister DS3 WRC, still learning an alien car on only his second event on tarmac. And if there was an award for most consistent finisher in the championship, it would surely go to Mads Ostberg, who cemented his fourth place in the championship and is only two points behind works Ford driver Petter Solberg.

Chris Atkinson again showed why he is extremely worthy of a works drive in the WRC again, after a sensational fifth place finish. Fifth might not sound like a brilliant result, but 'Atko' had never been in a Mini John Cooper Works WRC before the rally and hadn't tackled a World Championship tarmac event in almost four years, Rally Ireland 2009 being his last sealed surface WRC event.

“This result has given us a good base to work from so big thanks to the team who have done a fantastic job all weekend. Our strategy was to get through a tricky rally without making any mistakes and it paid off. We can start fighting a bit higher up now and start moving forward.” said for former Subaru works pilot.

Last years winner, Sebastian Ogier, drove another impressive rally in his normally aspirated Skoda Fabia S2000 to finish sixth. Team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen took seventh and the final power stage point, making history by being the first S2000 car to take a Power Stage point.

“It was a good way to end the rally, I really enjoyed that stage. My first stage victory in a World Rally Car was on this stage in 2008 so it’s good fun to come back and get a [bonus] point. It’s been a fantastic weekend for our team - sixth and seventh on home soil - and I am so happy to be here with them. We struggled a bit with the set-up but I am happy with my performance.” said Mikkelsen.

Olympic medallist Nasser Al-Attiyah took a fine eighth in his return to the WRC after he represented his country, Qatar, in the 2012 Olympics. Dani Sordo took ninth after Ott Tanak was withdrawn from the rally, with the Spaniard returned under Rally 2 after crashing his Prodrive MINI. Mathieu Arzeno took his Peugeot 207 S2000 to tenth place, and the final World Championship point.

Quite a few drivers had problems that held them out of the Top 10. Petter Solberg lost an argument with a hinkelstein (few people win arguments with them), Theirry Neuville suffered a puncture, Sepp Wiegand broke a wishbone and Evgney Novikov suffered rear differential failure. Paulo Nobre withdrew and returned to his native Brazil for family reasons.

Michal Kosciuszko took his second P-WRC win of the year in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, comfortably ahead of his Ralliart Italy team-mate Benito Guerra. 10 mins further back was Marcos Ligato, the Argentinian rounding out the Top 3 in his Subaru.

“It’s been an incredible weekend and the perfect job for us. The team did a good job and the car was really well prepared. It was a nice fight with Benny but just unfortunate he made a mistake and had the puncture. But that happens if you are pushing hard. The most important thing is we are still in the game and we can win the championship now.” said Kosciuszko, second in the championship.

Elfyn Evans extended his lead up to 35 points after his third Academy win on the bounce. Evans, who took second on the British Rally Championship round at the Ulster Rally the weekend prior to Germany, finished 1 min 9 secs ahead of Spaniard Jose Suarez in second. John MacCrone took third. Alastair Fisher should have taken fourth place but his run of torrid luck continued and his Fiesta R2 jammed in first gear.