Huge entry for first asphalt round of 2011

More than 80 crews will contest ADAC Rallye Deutschland next week, the first all-asphalt event of the 2011 World Rally Championship season.

Twenty new-generation World Rally Cars appear on the exciting entry with 10 runners in contention for Super 2000 World Rally Championship points and 16 FIA WRC Academy rising stars also in action on the Trier-based event.

Sebastien Loeb, who has never been beaten in Germany since the country joined the WRC schedule in 2002, heads the entry in his Citroen DS3 WRC. Sebastien Ogier will partner him in the factory Citroen squad, while Kimi Raikkonen, Petter Solberg and Peter van Merksteijn Jr will compete in semi-works DS3s.

Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala head the Ford challenge in their Fiesta RS WRCs. The Finns are among a nine-strong contingent of Fiesta exponents competing in Germany, which includes local hero Aaron Burkart, the last driver to win the Junior world crown, and American Gymkhana legend Ken Block.

The MINI WRC Team will make its third start of 2011 with Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo driving a brace of factory John Cooper Works WRCs. Armindo Araujo and Daniel Oliveira will also be at the wheel of the Prodrive-developed machines, along with Swede Patrik Flodin and promising French driver Pierre Campana.

Nine of the 10 registered SWRC drivers, including title leader Juho Hanninen and promising local ace Hermann Gassner Jr, will be competing in Germany. Their number is swelled by the addition of wildcard entrant Felix Herbold, who will drive a Fiesta S2000. Eyvind Brynildsen misses out following his car-wrecking crash on Neste Oil Rally Finland last month.

Sepp Wiegand is a new addition to the WRC Academy line-up. The German is deputising for Christian Riedemann, who is being assessed by Volkswagen Motorsport in one of its Skoda Fabia Super 2000s as a possible recruit for its world title bid from 2013. Dutchman Hans Weijs will pilot a second VW-run Fabia.