Rally Norway 2007 – Leg 2

End of stage flashes from Stage 13 Ringsaker 1

Snow becoming heavy, foggy, temperature 0.5 °C

17 Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (Ford Focus)
“We have so much snow, packed in the front of the car. The temperatures have gone very high and we have to slow down for many kilometres. We have lost many minutes.”

25 Juho Hänninen/Mikko Markkula (Mitsubishi Lancer WR05)
“Yes I went off. It was a very silly mistake by me. I went sideways into a snow bank at a junction.  Luckily there were many spectators to help me out, but I have lost time.”

6 Daniel Carlsson/Denis Giraudet (Citroen Xsara WRC)
“Hänninen went off on a junction which meant we passed him so we had to run second car on the road doing a snow plough.  With the fog it was really horrendous and my driving is not much better than yesterday.”

9 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Antilla (Ford Focus RS WRC 06)
“I cannot go any faster! I am really happy with things, but I must say compared to some drivers I have been very lucky with the snow banks”

8 Chris Atkinson/Glenn MacNeall (Subaru Impreza WRC 2006)
“Its good experience in these conditions but I have never been on snow like this, and with the fog, before. The car was okay on the short stage at Lillehammer but we lost a bit of power to the end of this stage. We need to work on a lot of things to get the speed up to where the other guys are at.”

5 Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor (Citroen Xsara WRC)
“My co-driver’s door came open half way through the stage and we could not close it. This meant Ilka had to hold it which hit her concentration and mine too”

10 Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud (Ford Focus RS WRC 06)
“I am pushing as hard as I can. I was off the road two times in this stage. I will try my best to get third from my brother. I have no other option.”

19 Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini (Citroen Xsara WRC)
(Came to the end of the stage wearing dark sunglasses) .”In the fog I could not see anywhere in that stage. I could not see anything at all at one hairpin, then bang I am in the snow bank. I don’t know. I lost a lot of time”

21 Toni Gardemeister/Jakke Honkanen (Mitsubishi Lancer WR05)
”Big, big fog in places so it was difficult to see, sometimes it means I am lifting a little on the straights, but it felt quite good.”

7 Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Subaru Impreza WRC 2006)
“The car is not handling very well on this stage. Its floating all over the place .I think we will fix it in service.”

1 Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen C4)
“Right.  What happened to me is I went off in the Lillehammer stage at slow speed and into a snow bank and got stuck. I lost eight minutes then we get here and I find we are two minutes behind eighth place and they point so I have to fight again. I try hard but I lost out again and went off.”

3 Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen (Ford Focus RS WRC 06)
“I made a little mistake at a junction and had to turn the car around. I think I had taken a lot of time off Mikko until then but I lost it all again with that moment”

4 Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lethinen (Ford Focus RS WRC 06)
“The pressure from Sébastien may be off now but the gap to Marcus is not very big so we are still racing.   I really want to win this rally. There was much fog in this stage and I could not see then Sébastien got back on in front of us and I lost five or six seconds following him.”

22 Xavier Pons/Xavier Amigo (Mitsubishi Lancer WR05)
“Yes it is very good I am up to eighth place but in this stage I missed one junction and went straight on but its okay, a good day for me.”

61 Anders Kjær/Trond Svendsen (Peugeot 307 WRC)
”This a fantastic driving chance for me and a great car for me to drive. Conditions are very difficult but it is real fun.”

45 P-G Andersson/Jonas Andersson (Suzuki Swift S1600)
“We are having to fight the car a lot on the snow. These conditions are really hard with two wheel drive. I am trying to keep up my speed and concentration. You have to stay on the line or you get pulled into the snow.”