Exciting three-way tussle at the top of the German Rally Championship

Marijan Griebel/Alexander Rath won the fifth race in the German Rally Championship (DRM), the ADAC Wartburg Rally around Eisenach, in their Peugeot in front of a large crowd. They finished 20.0 and 32.2 seconds ahead of their rivals Christian Riedemann/Michael Wenzel and the Brose pilots Dominik Dinkel/Christina Fürst (Rossach/Tiefenbach), who came second and third respectively in a Skoda. As a result, Dominik Dinkel defended his lead in the DRM and now has 91 points, narrowly ahead of Marijan Griebel (85) and Christian Riedemann (83).

Marijan Griebel completed the ADAC Wartburg Rally with his first win of the season for the Romo Peugeot team. He clocked three best times on the Friday to win on the day in commanding fashion against his two Skoda rivals. Riedemann struck back on the Saturday with four best times, but was only able to cut the gap for a short time. Dinkel also increased the pressure on his two opponents on the Saturday afternoon and reduced the gap by which he trailed the two leaders. An exciting three-way tussle on the final three trials loomed. Griebel withstood the pressure from his two pursuers until the finish to win his first DRM race for Peugeot. Christian Riedemann came second, 20 seconds behind. Dominik Dinkel also gave everything right to the very end and was in a fighting mood at the finish: “Our plan was actually to win. I didn’t really get into the rally to begin with. I then clocked a few good times, but somehow it just didn’t click here. So it was all about damage limitation for us,” said Dinkel.