FIA European Rally Championship: Dominik Dinkel shows upward trend

In northern Portugal Dominik Dinkel achieves his first top ten position in the FIA European Rally Championship 2020 at the Rally Fafe Montelongo (02. to 04. October). The 27-year-old Upper Franconian from the Brose Rallye Team, together with co-driver Michael Wenzel in the Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo, makes a strong performance in difficult external conditions.

In the competition he achieves eleven top ten times, is on the 11th of 18 special stages over a total of almost 183 kilometers even fifth fastest, finishes the first day of the rally in seventh position and is third of the ERC1 Juniors.

Dominik Dinkel: "There could have been even more. But on SS 8, I touched a stone with my rear wheel about 2 km before the finish. The rim, tires and track rod took a bad turn. We changed the damaged wheel after the stage, but we couldn't do anything about the suspension. That's why we were also cautious on the following special stage in order to reach the service safely".

In the service their Fabia was prepared in top shape for day 2, so the Brose Rallye Team was ready to attack. In the beginning, it worked as desired, but on the following track there came up a few small driving mistakes. In the end Dinkel lost a place in the overall as well as in the junior ranking with only 21.9 seconds missing on fifth place overall.

Nevertheless, for Dominik Dinkel the Rallye Fafe was an intermediate step: "I have to keep working on myself. In Portugal I was able to learn an enormous amount again. I would like to thank my sponsors and supporters for this and promise them further progress.”