• Round seven: Calle Carlberg wins ADAC Rallye Stemweder Berg
• Hard-fought battle: Max Reiter close second ahead of Austrian Luca Pröglhöf

With his fourth win of the season on the ADAC Rallye Stemweder Berg Calle Carlberg has taken a step closer to victory in the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup “powered by GSe”. The 22-year-old Swede, as always with father Torbjörn in the co-driver’s seat of the Opel Corsa Rally Electric, won the seventh round of the world’s first electric one-make rally cup just ahead of rival Max Reiter and his co-pilot Conny Nemenich. The Scandinavian extended his lead over the three-time-winner Reiter (Germany) in the standings to 17 points. That means that fourth place in the final round in four weeks’ time would be enough for Carlberg to take the title.

The asphalt rally around Lübbecke was a reflection of the entire season. From the first special stage onwards, Carlberg and Reiter fought for every tenth of a second. The lead changed hands between the two rivals several times before Carlberg was able to pull ahead by 5.8 seconds in SS11 and managed this lead until the finish. With his fourth best time in the final “Power Stage”, Carlberg collected the maximum 35 points.

“I’m super happy,” beamed Carlberg. “It was such a tough battle with Max. In the last two stages we were only separated by a tenth of a second, we were both driving absolutely at the limit. Our lead in the standings has increased a little, but that doesn’t change much in my approach to the title fight: I want to try to win the final round. We’ll see what happens."

The narrowly defeated Reiter, who was fastest on five special stages, was not that unhappy: “It’s hard to be disappointed when things are so close. The whole rally was once again a great battle between the Carlbergs and us, it was really fun. Even if our situation in the title fight doesn’t look very favourable, giving up is not an option! Nothing has been decided yet. No results are dropped in the Cup, which means that he also has to finish. But we don’t want to think too much, we just want to do our best as always and hope for a nice finale.”

After their third podium of the season, the Austrians Luca Pröglhöf and Christina Ettel are now 17 points ahead of the French pair Sarah Rumeau and Julie Amblard, who finished in the thankless fourth place for the fourth time. Pröglhöf: “I am very satisfied. The Power Stage in particular was cool because the top three were only 0.8 seconds apart.” Rumeau openly admitted “that this rally with the many junctions didn’t really suit us. Yesterday was great, I’ve always enjoyed driving in the rain. But we just didn’t find the right rhythm today.”

The Dutchmen Jari van Hoof/Colin Wils and the French brothers Anthony and Adrien Rott also put in strong performances in positions five and six. Cindy Gudet, like Sarah Rumeau a member of the FFSA French motorsport academy, came seventh with co-driver Jeanne Rey.

The final showdown in the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup takes place from October 27-29 at the Central European Rally around Passau, a new round in the World Rally Championship.

Standings ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup (after 7 of 8 rounds):

1. Carlberg, 226 points.
2. Reiter 209.
3. Pröglhöf 151.
4. Rumeau 134.
5. Van Hoof 94.
6. Lemke 91.
7. Baur 72.
8. Gudet 58.
9. Mendoza 51.
10. Rott 48.

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