German Rally Championship: Third place for Dinkel/Winklhofer in Hartberg

The leader of the German Rally Championship finishes on the podium at his test event at the Hartbergerland Rally with co-driver Pirmin Winklhofer and is satisfied.

The purpose of the German top driver Dominik Dinkel's entry at the Hartbergerland Rally was to test for the second round of the German Rally Championship, the ADAC Saarland Pfalz Rally in three weeks. With the support of the ZM Racing Team and the Brose Rallye Team from Germany, the driver from Upper Franconia and his co-driver Pirmin Winklhofer, who is well known in Austria, managed to finish in the top three and thus also on the podium.

As the 28-year-old Dinkel did not know all the special stages, he started the race in a controlled manner. Increasingly confident, he steered the Ford Fiesta Rally2 from ZM Racing over all the sections that Styria had to offer this weekend. But from every kilometer Dinkel got more and more used to the conditions and finally showed why he is one of the top favorites for the German title. Third place behind the superior winner Simon Wagner and ZM-Racing teammate Hermann Neubauer can be considered a successful test result.

Dominik Dinkel gave a satisfied summary: "The first day in Hartberg was not quite what I had imagined. I didn't drive particularly well and we also made two or three mistakes in our tire choice. But the second day was different. A lot of things worked out the way I wanted them to. That's why I'm satisfied with third place here. Even though I would have liked the time difference to the top to be a little smaller." But it was still just a test.