Riedemann gets second outing with VW

At the Rally of Spain, the penultimate round of the FIA World Rally Championship (20-23 October 2011), the factory team will again field two Škoda Fabia S2000 cars.

At the wheel: the German duo Christian Riedemann/Michael Wenzel (Sulingen/Kaiserslautern) and the Spanish pairing Yeray Lemes/Rogelio Peñate.

The team headed by Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen is pursuing two aims at this run: firstly the careful preparation for the entry of the Polo R WRC from 2013 on, and secondly the evaluation of young drivers who would like to recommend themselves for the climb up into the top class of rally racing.

"Our trial runs in Finland and the German Rally have already provided us with important findings with respect to the fielding of the vehicles, the organisation of the teams and the related logistics. Every WRC round has its own characteristics though – this makes it particularly important to gather specific experiences,” says Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. "In Spain we will again be running with two young driver pairings: Christian Riedemann and Michael Wenzel did a good job at their home round and now have the chance to show their potential on gravel. Yeray Lemes and his co-driver Rogelio Peñate on the other hand are hopefuls and highly motivated to compete in front of a home audience. For our team the main focus is not so much on the sporting result but on finishing the entire rally in order to gather as much experience as possible.”

For the 23-year-old Christian Riedemann this will be the second run in the Volkswagen factory team. Together with his co-driver Michael Wenzel he took third place at the German Rally in the Super 2000 category and was also the best German in the large field.

The duo has to "switch gears” for its run in Spain. Whereas the German rally around Trier was held mostly on tarmac the Catalonian WRC event around the small coastal town Salou additionally features several gravel tracks. This is the type of terrain on which Riedemann’s team colleague Yeray Lemes feels particularly comfortable.

The 24-year-old from Lanzarote won the 2009 Spanish Rally Championship on gravel and in addition the JWRC junior class at last year’s WRC round. Lemes, whose enthusiasm for the sport was inspired by Carlos Sainz’ WRC exploits, is currently competing in the so called WRC Academy with his co-driver Rogelio Peñate and is ranking in fourth place overall.