Opel Corsa Rally Electric: Electrifying Title Fight Enters Crucial Phase

• Second half of 2023 ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup “powered by GSe” begins
• Electric rally Cup resumes on August 18/19 with ADAC Saarland-Pfalz Rallye
• Close leadership contest between Max Reiter and Calle Carlberg

ADAC Saarland-Pfalz Rallye opens the second half of this season’s ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup “powered by GSe”. The asphalt stages around St. Wendel are among the most demanding in Germany – a stern test for the teams and the Opel Corsa Rally Electric. For the first time this weekend, the whole field of battery electric rally cars will be updated with the characteristic Opel Vizor brand fascia.

Duel for the lead of the overall standings is heating up. Max Reiter (23) slightly extended his advantage over his closest rival Calle Carlberg (22) with his third win this year on the recent Rallye Weiz in Austria. But with four rounds still to go until the grand finale at the Central European Rally (a new addition to the World Rally Championship), five points are hardly a comfortable cushion. Especially as the slightest mistake could decide the title.

Even if the rest of the field, led by Luca Pröglhöf and Sarah Rumeau, are meanwhile following the leading pair at a respectful distance, Reiter and Carlberg cannot relax. The 24-year-old Austrian clearly demonstrated his ambition on home soil at the Rallye Weiz, where he scored his second podium in succession. And after three fourth-place finishes, the 28-year-old Rumeau is determined to get on the rostrum. Additional contenders for the podium are Joe Baur (24) and Christian Lemke (23), who already placed third on the Rallye du Chablais in Switzerland.

Also closing in on the leaders is the five-time French hillclimb champion Cindy Gudet (27), who is adapting fast to the Corsa Rally Electric. “The car is totally different to the prototype I drive on the hills. Rallying itself is something else. The stages are longer, you have a co-driver and you drive on pace notes. It’s another world, but I’m learning step by step.”

Start in St. Wendel on Friday, August 18, is at 4.10 p.m. before the battery-electric rally cars head out for the first four special stages. Another six stages await the teams on Saturday between 8.50 a.m. and 6.00 p.m.

Standings ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup 2023 (after 4 of 8 rounds): 

1. Reiter, 126 points

2. Carlberg 121

3. Pröglhöf 84

4. Rumeau 78

5. Lemke 55

6. Van Hoof 42

7. Tarta 39

8. Baur 36

9. Gudet 34

10. Callea and Wittenbeck, 27 each