SS5: VW claims its fifth win from five stages

This new stage in the Eifel hills lies close to the Belgian border. It climbed or descended throughout with plenty of hairpin bends as it darted in and out of the trees.

Volkswagen secured its fifth consecutive stage win at ADAC Rallye Deutschland when Jari-Matti Latvala outpaced team-mate Sébastien Ogier over the final few kilometres of Waxweiler to go fastest by a tenth of a second.

The Finn was almost three seconds down after the muddy and dirty opening half, but regained it all in drier conditions during the second part.

“I can’t match the speed Ogier is driving at when it’s dirty. But the last 4km were like a race circuit, wide and smooth, and I drove them like a race driver, using the whole width of the road,” said Latvala.

Kris Meeke was again best of the rest in third, but the Citroen DS3 pilot is now 37.0sec off the lead. He has a new pursuer in fourth as Andreas Mikkelsen relegated 2013 winner Dani Sordo to fifth.

“I made some mistakes in the middle of the stage. I lost a bit of confidence with the car and was understeering and oversteering,” explained Sordo.

There were also changes behind as Mads Østberg struggled in the dirty sections in his DS3. Both Mikko Hirvonen and Thierry Neuville moved ahead, Neuville also leapfrogging Hirvonen into sixth.

Martin Prokop has struggled to find a rhythm for much of the day and the Czech driver remains at a loss to explain why. “Something is wrong, but I have no idea what,” he said.