The ninth round of this year’s World Rally Championship has been a dramatic one with numerous incidents and tough conditions challenging drivers during all stages in Germany.

 

Following 17 special stages, run over three days, the Sparco-backed M-Sport World Rally Team drivers have been involved in a very close in-house battle with Elfyn Evans and Mikko Hirvonen finishing in fourth and fifth places, less than ten seconds apart and not far off the podium positions.

 

It was a tense concluding day to Rally Germany with several of the leaders failing to make the finish of the event. However, the M-Sport drivers, both wearing Sparco’s EXTREMA RS-10 overalls, brought their Fiesta RS WRC cars to the end of the power stage, Grafschaft 2, intact and in the top five to score valuable championship points. 

 

Mikko Hirvonen ended the penultimate stage, Dhrontal 2, on top of the timesheets with his team-mate Evans in third, as the intra-team battle intensified. In the end, it was Evans who came through to take the fourth place after winning the Power Stage and extending his advantageto 6.9s.

 

In WRC2, Sparco had to settle for second place in this rally as Ott Tanak, wearing Sparco’s Superleggera overalls, finished tenth overall. 

 

Sparco’s CEO Claudio Pastoris said: “Well done to the M-Sport World Rally team drivers for both finishing in the top five in an unpredictable and exciting rally – and so close to the podium. It was very nice to see both drivers taking stage wins today. It seems that the conditions have caught out a number of drivers, so we are pleased to see both Elfyn and Mikko complete the rally. In such difficult circumstances, the drivers have to remain focussed at all times which is why we pride ourselves on the lightweight comfort that our EXTREMA RS-10 offers. We now look forward to the next WRC event in Australia with great anticipation.”