"How can I forget it last year’s result in Germany? It was the first time I was nominated as eligible to score Manufacturers' points. That was fantastic. On top of that, the weekend went well: we ended up finishing second and I had great fun driving the Xsara," he noted.
"I enjoy competing on asphalt, but it's difficult to consider the Rallye Deutschland as a typical sealed surface event. It sometimes seems more like a gravel rally with a bit of asphalt.
"It's so easy to be caught out by a hazard or by a storm. We will try to make the most of the
Citroen C4's potential to score a top result, but that's no foregone conclusion," he added.
BP Ford WRT:
[Marcus Gronholm, car #3 and
Mikko Hirvonen, car #4 [and
Khalid Al Qassimi, car #21 - not nominated for points]]
Germany very tough, says Gronholm.
Current championship leader, Marcus Gronholm has admitted that it will be a 'big task' to get the better of
Sebastien Loeb on the Rallye Deutschland.
Gronholm goes to Germany following his third win in succession in Finland two weeks ago - and he now lies 13 points clear of the Frenchman in the race for the 2007 drivers' title.
Rallye Deutschland won't be easy though - and while in Finland Gronholm was the favourite, this time out Seb is very much the man to watch, having the won the event every year since it joined the WRC schedule back in 2002.
Gronholm in contrast has had 'only' four podium finishes from five starts, trailing the Citroen man home in third last year by more than two minutes in his BP-backed Ford Focus RS WRC.
Speaking ahead of the tenth round in the 2007
FIA World Rally Championship, the Finn added that the weather can make things difficult too.
"This will be one of the most difficult events of the season. The stages aren't easy and the weather plays such a huge part in the outcome," he confirmed following Ford’s three-day test in Germany last week, in which he was in action on days two and three.
“It's unpredictable and if a driver is on the wrong type of rain when it suddenly rains, then that can decide the outcome.
“It rained most of the day during our test on Thursday [last week] so that helped us to try a few things in the wet.”
“Beating Loeb on asphalt is a big task but I hope we can be really close to him and if that is the case, who knows what will happen? We proved in Finland the new Focus RS has moved forward and this rally will give everyone an idea how the second half of the season could develop,” he added.
