Mikko Hirvonen meanwhile will make his fourth start in Germany on Thursday and the 27-year-old is keen to assess the improvement of the new Focus RS on asphalt.
"We tested in Spain in June and in Germany last week and I think we've made a bigger improvement on asphalt than on gravel with the new car," he said. “It has more grip - and is more precise to drive.
"I'm not going there thinking I can win. My aim is to push Dani Sordo as hard as I can and if I can take third, that would be like a win for me. There are many challenges on this rally.
“Baumholder is extremely fast in places and the vineyards require a lot of courage. The roads are fast and narrow and if you don't have a good feeling with the tyres, it's easy to lose a lot of time there," he summed-up.
OMV Kronos Citroen WRT:
[Manfred Stohl, car #5 and
Francois Duval, car #6].
Kronos back to two-car effort.
Francois Duval will make his debut for OMV Kronos on the Rallye Deutschland this coming weekend - a deal which will see him back behind the wheel of a Citroen Xsara WRC car for the first time since his win in Australia at the end of 2005.
Duval, who has only done one WRC event this season, when he took in the Acropolis Rally with a First Motorsport-run Fabia WRC, is looking forward to driving the Xsara competitively again, a car which is clearly in a different league to the Skoda.
The Belgian had the chance to re-acquaint himself with the Citroen on Monday and was immediately on the pace.
“The car is fantastic,” said Duval, who will be co-driven by Patrick Pivato. “It is probably even better than the Xsara of 2005. We feel great and are mainly working on the choice of tyres.
“We didn’t have to change the basic set-up at all. I am very happy to have gotten the chance to drive such a car once again.”
Manfred Stohl meanwhile will be in the sister
Citroen, the #5 Kronos-run Xsara as is the norm. The Austrian needed several runs on the 3.5 kilometre test course, 50 kilometres from Trier, in order to get use to running asphalt again.
