Favorite triumph at ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup season opener

• Max Reiter from the Saarland wins the 2022 Cup opener at the ADAC Rally Sulingen
• German rookie Timo Schulz and the Swede Calle Carlberg finish on the podium
• Difficult conditions pose challenges for the teams and their Corsa-e Rally

Rüsselsheim/Munich. Max Reiter has won the season opener of the ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup 2022. The runner-up champion from last year and his co-driver Lina Meter defeated cup rookie Timo Schulz after some controversy. Right after the finish Schulz was declared the winner of the first cup round at ADAC Actronics Rally Sulingen. The 22-year-old from Siersburg and co-driver Benedikt Preißmann were 20.4 seconds ahead of the Swedes Calle and Torbjörn Carlberg after ten special stages. Only 0.7 seconds behind the Scandinavian son-father team, Alexander Kattenbach and Ann Felke from ADAC Hessen-Thüringen took third place on the podium. Lukas Thiele and Jara Hain finished fourth in Altonative Motorsport's Corsa-e Rally ahead of the Romanian women's team of Cristiana Oprea/Alexia Parteni.

However, the result was still provisional after Reiter/Meter had lodged a protest against a penalty that was imposed on them for “delaying the event”. The Saarlanders had been fined eleven penalty minutes for entering the sixth special stage too late. "We responded to instructions from the stewards, as it is in the regulations. That's why we don't accept the penalty," emphasized Reiter.

Late in the evening, the rally management of the ADAC Actronics Rally Sulingen corrected the result and cancelled the penalty after hearing from the parties concerned and thorough deliberation. As a result, Reiter/Meter now rank 22.7 seconds ahead of Schulz and his co-driver Benedikt Preußmann. The last place on the podium is taken by the Carlberg/Carlberg, while Kattenbach/Felke slipped back to 4th place. After Reiter also set the fastest time in the Power Stage (SS11) and collected the five bonus points associated, he now leads the intermediate standings with the maximum of 35 points.

The fights on the special stages had been intense. Right from the start, gripping battles for fractions of a second broke out at the front. Just how evenly matched the field of the quick electrical cars was, had been demonstrated by the fact that a total of five drivers recorded at least one best stage time. In SS7, three drivers - Reiter, Schulz and Christian Lemke - were fastest with the same time.

Also after been relegated to P2, Timo Schulz was extremely happy: "I hardly thought such a good result was possible. Given our limited experience in the Corsa-e Rally, we took it a bit more cautiously at the start. After all, I had never driven the car on gravel before. Over time, however, confidence grew in the cockpit, so we added a few coals. The cup is fun, it's really close. So it's all the nicer that we came out on the podium in the end."

Calle Carlberg, on the other hand, commented on his third place with mixed feelings: "I should be very satisfied, but I'm not. We had a sniff of victory here. But on the penultimate special stage we were the only team to risk dry tires because we wanted to gamble. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. But for our first international start and the first asphalt rally, it was okay."

Christian Lemke and his co-driver Sarah-Marleen Storch were among the unlucky birds at the Cup opener. The local hero from Verden was very strong on the road and, like Reiter, recorded five best stage times, but lost all chances of victory after a ride out in stage 2. Like numerous other competitors, Lemke had fallen victim to the dense dust clouds whirled up by the other vehicles in the field on the gravel tracks of the first day of the rally. "It was total blind flying," Lemke reported. "We had noted a house next to the track as a waypoint in our write-up. I didn't even see that, and there we were in the field." The same fate befell Joe Baur - at the same time as Lemke the best time holder in SS1 - twice.

Opel Motorsport Director Jörg Schrott was full of praise after the opening event: "We have a good cohort at the start this year. It's super exciting, the top teams were very close to each other in most of the stages. That's what you want in a one-make cup. Electric rallying is electrifying, as we saw again here in Sulingen. It promises to be a great season in the ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup."

The news channel n-tv will report on the exciting action in Sulingen in the magazine "PS - Die Deutsche Rallye-Meisterschaft" next Saturday (14.5.) from 12.30 pm. The second round of the ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup 2022 will take place on May 20/21 as part of the ELE Rally around Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

Points standings ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup 2022 (after 1 of 7 rounds): 1. Reiter, 35 points. 2. Schulz 29. 3. Carlberg 22. 4. Kattenbach 20. 5. Thiele 18. 6. Oprea 14. 7. Lemke 13. 8. Pröglhöf 12. 9. Van Hoof 8

Press contact

Opel Motorsport

Marcus Lacroix, T +49 7531 92 28 106, e-mail ml@opel-motorsport.com

ADAC e.V.

Oliver Runschke, T +49 89 76 69 65, e-mail oliver.runschke@adac.de

Kay-Oliver Langendorff, T +49 89 76 69 36, e-mail kay.langendorff@adac.de

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