Monday | 17 Aug 2015

Trophy trio confident for surface switch

The three-way fight for the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy enters a new phase at ADAC Rallye Deutschland (20 - 23 August) in the only all-asphalt round of the series.

Marius Aasen, Tom Cave and Max Vatanen have all claimed a win each on gravel. Not only must they master the switch to asphalt, but they will also have to overcome a string of sealed surface experts eager to close the gap on the trio.

Cave trails leader Aasen by eight points after winning in Finland earlier this month, but the Briton heads into the 21 special stages, covering almost 375km, buoyed by victory in Germany last year (above) in the Trophy’s inaugural season.

“We had a good event there last year and I’m hoping to transfer that feeling and speed across to this week, I’m confident we are in for a shout of another win. I believe this event will be significant in terms of the championship and it’s an opportunity for us to score some important points to overhaul the series leader,” said Cave.

Both Aasen and Vatanen have competed in warm-up asphalt events, while Vatanen, who lies only a point behind Cave, has been karting to help acclimatise to the surface switch.

Dutch rookie Mats van den Brand (below) was blisteringly quick at his WRC debut in Germany last year when he competed outside the series as a privateer, while Ghislain de Mevius overcame a roll in 2014 to finish on the podium.

Kevin van Deijne and Gus Greensmith, fourth and fifth in the points, both favour asphalt as does Slovenian series newcomer Tim Novak, who makes his WRC debut.

All 10 drivers will be at the wheel of identical Ford Fiesta R2 cars prepared by M-Sport.

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