WELSH rally star Osian Pryce delivered a perfect drive from start to finish to get on top of the podium on Rally Germany.

Despite having never competed, or even visited Germany before, the Machynlleth driver totally dominated the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy part of the event.

Fastest on the opening stage, Pryce and co-driver Dale Furniss kept their focus to maintain the lead over three intense days of competition around the vineyards, lanes and military roads around Trier.

The Welsh pair could then celebrate their second victory of the season, having won the first round in Portugal as well.

With just one round of the championship to go, 23-year-old Pryce and Furniss, 28, are in pole position to claim the title.

“Having never been here before, I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Pryce. “I’d watched as much coverage of the event as I could, but the plan was to just come here and try to drive our own rally.

“It felt good on the first stage, and even in the unpredictable conditions I had complete faith in the tyres, the DMACKs were superb on such slippery roads.

“Everything just clicked for us from there on. I felt comfortable, Dale was absolutely perfect on the notes, and we were able to take time out of the other guys.

“The key to this week was staying out of trouble. In some places the road was completely covered in mud, it was like ice.”

It was a controlled, but dominant drive in their Ford Fiesta R2T, to hold off the challenge of Finland’s Max Vatanen.

“Dale and I worked really hard in the recce to identify areas that we felt could be affected by a weather change before the start, and this has helped,” said Pryce.

“Once we had got into the lead, Saturday was about managing that lead.

“I have to say, I’d heard a lot about the infamous Panzerplatte stage, but I absolutely loved it - what a challenge and what a stretch of road! That’s how I feel about the whole thing, to be honest. It’s been a great rally, and I’m really pleased.

“We had made a small mistake on the second day in Finland last month, and that cost us the win. As it was, we were fastest on day one and day three there, and without that mistake we could have been sitting on three wins and a second.

“But I’m not going to dwell on that, I’m just over the moon with this result.”

Rally Germany is one of the most fearsome events in the WRC calendar, and it lived right up to its formidable reputation as the crews tackled varied and volatile roads in changeable weather conditions.

They also needed to be alert and make calculated decisions on how best to use their DMACK DMT-RC tyres at what is the only all-Tarmac round of the year.

Building on a terrific triumph in his native Finland last time out, Max Vatanen finished as the runner-up in Germany, and is second overall in the championship on 84 points - 14 adrift of Pryce.

Northern Ireland’s Jon Armstrong won five stages as he took the final podium place after a mixed weekend, having had a heavy shunt on stage two on the Friday, and he then lost more than three minutes following a puncture on the Saturday.

Pryce will now head to Spain for the final round of the DDFT, and a repeat result will be enough to win him two more prize drives in a works Ford Fiesta R5 in next year’s WRC2 series. His win in Portugal, allied to a second place finish in Poland earlier this season has been enough to bag him two drives with the world champion M-Sport rally team already.

“In terms of the Championship, the job’s only half done,” added Pryce. “We’ve got to go to Spain and do the same thing again. Obviously having the win takes a little bit of the pressure off, but we’ve never competed in Catalunya, so Dale and I will be doing our homework in front of the television again before then.”