Francois Duval quickest on Rally Germany 2008 Shakedown ahead of Dani Sordo

Posted by RallyScott 14 August, 2008

Duval was quickest in shakedown today for the ADAC Rallye Deutschland but is playing down his chances on the rally. The shakedown was a 5.8km test near the event's base in Trier. Dani Sordo came second just .6 of a second behind with Hirvonen third. Seb Loeb was fourth just 1.1s behind Duval.

Duval commented to wrc.com:

My shakedown time was no great surprise because the road is the same as last year and the car doesn’t feel so bad, but tomorrow will be completely different. My last WRC rally was in Monte Carlo, and one day of pre-event testing is not enough after seven months. The test went okay, but I think tomorrow it will be too difficult to catch Seb from my position on the road. The forecast is for rain, which means lots of mud on the corners for me. I hope I don’t lose too much time - then perhaps I can push a little bit more on Saturday and Sunday. I’d hoped for completely dry conditions, so it looks like it will be very difficult.”

Shakedown times

1. Duval: 3:35.5
2. Sordo 0.6
3. Hirvonen 0.8
4. Loeb 1.1
5. Henning Solberg 1.7
6. Galli 2.1
7. Latvala 2.3
8. Petter Solberg 3.3
9. Atkinson 3.8
10. Aava 4.3
11. Mikkelsen 4.8
12. Gardemeister 6.7
13. Andersson 8
14. Rautenbach 8.2
15. Van Eldik 8.9
16. Wilson 9.7
17. Al Qassimi 12.4
18. Wevers 13.4
19. Jones 15.3
20. Van Merksteijn 24.5