Trier, August 19, 2011 – The first asphalt race of the SWRC near the historic city of Trier was marked by rain in the second speed test of the first stage and a very unfortunate end of the day for both crews of the Red Bull ŠKODA team. Juho Hänninen and Hermann Gassner both made driving errors at the same spot in the final speed test of the day and both damaged their wheel suspension. Hänninen lost his lead position and Gassner lost his current third place. Thanks to the Super Rally system, both crews will start tomorrow in sixth (Hänninen) and seventh (Gassner) positions with a loss of more than ten minutes on the leader Tänak.
Hänninen did not hide his frustration: “It’s hard to say anything positive – I ruined a beautifully started race with a pointless, hard to forgive error. Unfortunately we’ve no one to blame for complicating our bid for the title but ourselves.”
Gassner was not feeling optimistic, either: “That great third place we had is a thing of the past. I’m really disappointed, because we had a fantastic start to the competition.”
The competition continues on Saturday with eight speed tests 150 kilometers in length.
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