At first the sporting picture was clear. Timo Rumpfkeil and co-driver Helmar Hinneberg had won the Rally Cologne-Ahrweiler in the Porsche 911 Rally GT with a 40.7-second lead over Leonard Weiss and Nick Hainke in the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. But a few hours after the finish the sobering news followed: the stewards subsequently excluded Team Motopark from the classification.
The reason for the decision was a tyre change on the liaison between special stages four and five. After evaluating GPS data as well as photo and video recordings the stewards concluded that the crew had changed at least two wet tyres for dry tyres outside an authorized service zone.
Video footage contradicts the driver's account
At the hearing Rumpfkeil stated that he had only changed the left front tyre during a short stop in Barweiler. A wet tyre remained fitted on the right front wheel. No further wheel change had taken place.
However, the technical commissioners had observed before the start of the fourth stage that at least one wet tyre was fitted to the right front wheel. After the fifth stage, by contrast, all four wheels were fitted with dry tyres. Confronted with this finding, Rumpfkeil confirmed after viewing the video footage that all four dry tyres had been mounted.
The stewards assessed the incident as a breach of Articles 56.1.1 and 56.1.2 of the DMSB rally regulations. Outside the designated service zones competitors may only carry out work on the vehicle with tools and spare parts carried on board and without outside assistance. In the stewards' view, however, equipment was used in the tyre change that had not been on board.
In their decision the officials also justified the disqualification with the sporting advantage a crew could gain from such an unauthorized service.
As a result, Leonard Weiss and Nick Hainke move up to first place in the Rally Cologne-Ahrweiler. Second place goes to Yann Munhowen and Luc Kalmes in the BMW M3, followed by Michael Bieg and Vanessa Dagge in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX.
Results Rally Cologne-Ahrweiler 2026*
| 1. | Leonard Weiss / Nick Hainke | Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 | RC2 | 1:30:40.0 |
| 2. | Yann Munhowen / Luc Kalmes | BMW M3 E30 | Y33 | +2:14.5 |
| 3rd. | Michael Bieg / Vanessa Dagge | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX | NC1 | +3:46.4 |
| 4th. | Edwin Wolves / Ingrid Wolves | Porsche Cayman S | NC1 | +5:13.6 |
| 5th. | Maurice Kuijstermans / M. Kuijstermans | BMW 325i E30 | Y33 | +6:15.0 |
| 6th. | Udo Schütt / Peter Schaaf | Opel Corsa Rally4 | RC4 | +7:04.1 |
| 7th. | Christian Kohlhaas / Stefan Marx | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X | NC1 | +7:22.5 |
| 8. | Stefan Schultes / Linus Noll | BMW M3 E36 | NC2 | +7:23.5 |
| 9. | Frederick Kiko / Björn Leifert | BMW 318 Ti Compact E36 | NC3 | +9:20.5 |
| 10. | Dominik Schöning / Guido Stauffenberg | BMW 318 iS E36 | NC3 | +9:26.1 |
*provisional due to an ongoing appeal
