Thread: WRC final round at Rally GB

Quotes from the end of the first Special Stage STAGE FLASH
Date: 23.10.2009
Day: 1 Flash No: 1
Special Stage: HAFREN 1 Distance: 32.14 Km
Weather: Dry with some cloud
Road Conditions: Smooth but slippery in parts. Light rain overnight with lingering fog in places



3: Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen
“Seb is pushing really hard already. But it was not safe for me to go so fast straight away. If you hesitate you lose momentum and you go wide and there’s no room for that.”

1: Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena
“The grip was not so bad, quite OK. It was a good stage and I tried not to look at Mikko’s line but take my own instead.”

2: Dani Sordo/Marc Marti
“I tried to go fast, but sometimes it’s slippery and other times it is not so bad.”

4: Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Antilla
Emerged from stage with a broken front right driveshaft. “We lost a lot of time, and I’m not sure if we have a spare driveshaft in the car.”

11: Petter Solberg/Phil Mills
“I made a couple of mistakes in there but the car feels good and its not a bad start for us. Very muddy, far more than the recce.”

6: Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud
“The engine went onto three cylinders, that is the problem. It happened for almost the whole stage.”

5: Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin
“Those times for the top two are unbelievable. We had a clean run but the engine feels a bit down on power. I was having to knock it down one or two gears on some sections just the keep the speed up.”

12: Ogier/Julien Ingrassia
“Not good, but not bad; it’s just hard to fight with the times that Seb and Mikko are doing at the moment.”

End of leg press conference 23.10.2009 Cardiff
Present:
Sebastien Loeb
Mikko Hirvonen
Petter Solberg


Q: Seb, what an awesome day out there today. How are you feeling?
SL: I feel happy. It’s a good battle and I am still in the lead after today, so that’s good. I know there’s a long way to go though, and it is very hard. We are pushing to the maximum all the time. In the morning I had a very good start and then in the afternoon Mikko closed the gap a bit. So it’s like that: we will see tomorrow.

Q: At the end of the final stage, you said you wanted to be first on the road tomorrow. Why?
SL: Because Mikko was faster than me in the afternoon! So I think, OK, maybe I can try that.

Q: We are hearing that the weather tomorrow will be torrential rain. That will make things really tricky out there...?
SL: Yes. It was very easy today without that! For sure if it’s raining a lot and foggy it will be very difficult.

Q: Mikko, Seb took quite a bit of time out of you in the morning. How were you feeling going into that mid-point service break?
MH: Well I was a bit nervous I tell you, and I thought is this how it’s going to be, with him pulling away from me all the time? But luckily in the afternoon I found a nice rhythm and I managed to get some time out of him so it was good. At least we are still in the fight so he can’t take it so easy.

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