Ford Focus rally car claims WRC start record in Germany
Ford's double world championship-winning Focus RS World Rally Car reached another landmark achievement tonight when a record 13 models were flagged away from the startline of Rallye Deutschland – confirming it as the car of choice among the world's leading rally drivers.

Never before in the World Rally Car era have so many examples of the same car started a round of the FIA World Rally Championship. With 24 WRCs starting this 10th round of the series, it meant a remarkable 54 percent of those were Focus RS WRCs. Just two months ago the Focus RS WRC created history by becoming the first to score points in 100 consecutive WRC rounds.

All 13 cars were built at M-Sport, the British-based team which operates the official BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team and the centre of Ford's European rallying programmes. Three cars competing in Germany are entered by the BP Ford Abu Dhabi squad and four by the privately-run Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally team. The remaining six are entered by private teams and drivers.

Ford of Europe motorsport director Mark Deans and M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson stood alongside the £6 million of Focus RS WRCs in Trier, home of Rallye Deutschland, for a commemorative pre-start photograph taken from the air.

"It's a remarkable statistic that more than 50 per cent of the World Rally Cars starting this event are Focus RS WRCs," said Deans. "Rallye Deutschland traditionally attracts one of the largest entries of the season in the World Rally Car category and I'm delighted to see so many Focus RS WRCs here. The Focus RS WRC is renowned for its strength, speed and reliability, driving quality characteristics it shares with the road car, and those are the attributes that make it the choice of many of the world's leading drivers."

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