He celebrates his first DRM race victory: Geipel wins the Sachsenring Rallye Festival

He celebrates his first DRM race win
Geipel wins the Sachsenring Rallye Festival

04/25/2022, 11:38 am

Heart-stopping finale at the 57th ADAC Rallye Erzgebirge. In the last special stage, Philip Geipel/Katrin Becker-Brugger (Skoda Fabia Rally2 EVO) beat the previously leading Julius Tannert/Franck Christian (VW Polo GTI R5) by nine tenths of a second and thus celebrated their first victory in the German Rally Championship.

Third place on the podium went to DRM title defender Marijan Griebel and co-driver Tobias Braun in the Citroën C3 Rally2. These three teams started the last two special stages separated by just eight tenths of a second.

Only at the finish did the former ADAC GT Masters driver Geipel find out about his stroke of genius – because his co-driver had consistently refused to announce the special stage times to her driver. “We’ve been doing it this way for a few rallies,” grinned the 35-year-old from Plauen. “So I didn’t know how close it was. Katrin just always said: That’s fine, you can leave it… Only before the last stage at the Sachsenring did she say: Now let’s unpack your track qualities. And then I have that too We had to overtake another competitor on the stage, but he made way super fair. The whole rally went just fantastic, I had a great feeling the whole time. But I really didn’t expect that it would be enough to win in the end .”

Tannert has to give up 0.9 seconds in the last special stage

Although defeated by a hair’s breadth, Julius Tannert managed a smile at the finish. “We lost the rally with a puncture about a kilometer before the finish of SS6 after we had already pulled away by a good five seconds at the front,” said the 31-year-old from Zwickau, who earns his living as an instructor at the Sachsenring. “I knew how close it was, so I risked everything on the last special stage at the Sachsenring – and then it’s difficult not to make a mistake. Nevertheless, it was a good start for us: 2nd place is a good basis. “

Marijan Griebel expressed similar satisfaction, although a spin in the penultimate special stage had robbed the 32-year-old from Hahnweiler of a possible victory: “I knew that I would have a hard time against the Sachsenring specialists in the last special stage. So I did I risked everything in the penultimate stage and that just went wrong. But if someone had told me beforehand that I would get P3 and win the Power Stage, then I would have signed it.”

Vice champion Dominik Dinkel and his co-driver Ursula Mayrhofer were unlucky as they were slowed down by a broken shock absorber in the second special stage on Friday evening. “Nevertheless, a podium finish would have been urgent if a slower R5 vehicle hadn’t held us up for two laps in SS7,” said the annoyed 29-year-old Ford Fiesta driver, who finished fourth ahead of his brand colleagues Björn Satorius/Hanna Ostlender.

Taking into account the additional points for the Power Stage, Geipel leads the DRM intermediate table with 32 points ahead of Tannert (27), Griebel (26), Dinkel (23) and Satorius (18).

As close as the decision for overall victory was, Dennis Rostek and Michael Wenzel (Skoda Fabia R5) had everything under control in the newly created “Gentlemen’s Trophy”. After the early exit of Georg Berlandy/Peter Schaaf (clutch damage on the Peugeot 208 T16 R5), the Bückeburg driver won all ten special stages and in the end won easily ahead of Oliver Bliss/Stephan Schneeweiß in the Peugeot 208 T16 R5 and Raphael Ramonat/Steffen Schmidt in the Citroën DS3 R5. “It’s a pity that Georg couldn’t drive through,” Rostek regretted. “After that we just went at our own pace and enjoyed the rally in front of this unbelievable crowd of spectators. From my point of view it was one of the best events in recent years.”

Quadruple Opel victory in the DRM2

The many fans also saw a great fight in the DRM2 category for two-wheel drive vehicles, which saw a quadruple victory for Opel at the finish. René Noller/Stefan Kopczyk took the lead in SS6 and didn’t give it up until the finish. With Ron Schumann/Claudia Harloff, Jonas Ertz/Maresa Lade and Martin Christ/Tamara Lutz, three other Corsa Rally4 crews finished ahead of Nico Knacker and Enrico Flores-Trigo in the new Renault Clio Rally4 and Sepp Wiegand in the Peugeot 208 Rally4. The latter was thrown back by a ride out in the lead in SS6. “Unfortunately, it was pretty much out of breath after that,” admitted Wiegand, who by his own admission still enjoyed the rally to the fullest: “Seeing these thousands of fans at the side of the track was simply fantastic. At the start of the Grünhain special stage, I actually had tears in my eyes. “

Raffael Sulzinger/Lisa Kiefer were unlucky, their brand new Ford Fiesta Rally4 ran aground with drive shaft damage immediately after the best time in SS1. Two punctures on the following day also slowed down the Bavarian-Palatinate duo’s race to catch up. The fact that no fewer than six teams won at least one of the ten special stages shows how balanced the new DRM2 category was.

There was also an exciting internal Porsche duel in the DRM Historic, which Florian Feustel/Paul Gehbauer won ahead of their 911 colleagues Andreas Dahms/Paul Schubert.

Highlights of the Erzgebirge Rally on n-tv

The highlights of all seven rounds of the German Rally Championship can be seen exclusively on free-to-air television on n-tv. As part of the 30-minute DRM magazine “PS – DRM Deutsche Rallye-Meisterschaft” the highlights of the ADAC Rallye Erzgebirge can be seen on Saturday (April 30) from 1.10 p.m. The repeat runs the following day from 7:30 a.m.