After a start to the season on gravel that saw them compete at Rally de Portugal and Rally Poland, Michaël Burri and Anderson Levratti switch to tarmac at Rallye Deutschland. The crew and team decided to miss Rally Finland in order to prepare for the second half of the season as effectively as possible, and Burri/Levratti will be driving a completely new Clio R3T, assembled and fine-tuned by Renault Sport. Most importantly, the Swiss crew comes into this Germany round with solid bearings, since the pair has already competed at this event on several occasions.

"I’m very happy to be back in Germany," confirmed Michaël Burri. "I won the two-wheel drive class here in 2011, was fourth in the S2000 the year after and runner-up in the Junior WRC in 2013. I’ve done pretty well at this rally up to now, and it’s the one for which I have the greatest hopes within my programme. I’m more familiar with this surface and some of the stages are similar to the roads you get in Switzerland, in Le Valais. I have the advantage of knowing how the Clio R3T handles on tarmac, having won the Clio R3T European Trophy last year on roads like these. Our aim is to be bold from the word go and see how our driving compares with the competition. The fact we’ll have Renault Sport’s expertise and our knowledge of the road surface to draw upon means we can aim a bit higher here than we did at the start of the season."

For the Renault Sport Rally Team, returning to Rallye Deutschland means competing at an event where Clio R3T did well last year, where it was able to establish itself as one of the leading cars in the two-wheel drive category. "We already have our bearings in Trier," confirmed Sylvain Alanore, Team Manager. "Michaël also has a good deal of experience in Germany and so we should be able to start at a good pace. A lot of time has gone by since Rally Poland but we will take part in the day of testing on Monday in order to get a feel for the rhythm on tarmac. We’ll be expecting tough competition from the Juniors, but this will give us the chance to see how we have progressed in the standings."

ADAC Rallye Deutschland gets underway on Friday, 19 August with two loops of two stages in the Mosel vineyards, before concluding with the Ollmuth super special stage. On Saturday, a formidable challenge awaits the field at the Baumholder military base with the marathon Panzerplatte stage, where Michaël Burri and Anderson Levratti will have to avoid the ‘hinkelsteins’, the giant concrete blocks that line the roads to guide the tanks through this military training camp. The final day will feature stages in the Mosel vineyards and the Eifel mountains, close to the border with Luxembourg.