Photo: Benjamin A. Ward/Rally Norway

Drivers’ comments at Service Park H

Feb. 15, 2009

1. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroën C4)

“The road was clean in stage 19, they had sent the snow plough which meant we had good ice, I had good confidence in the grip and I could push hard. Definitely it made a difference being first on the road, it would have been better for Mikko this morning.“

3. Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Focus RS WRC 08)

“The time for Sebastien in stage 19 was very good. I felt I had driven well, my pace notes were a little sow in three corners but otherwise it was a perfect stage for me. I will keep pushing and determine not to keep letting him take 10 points.”

4. Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Antilla (Ford Focus RS WRC 08)

“On the first 2, I saw I was behind the two cars ahead so I settled down to keep the place. After my disappointment in Rally Ireland I needed to come back and get some confidence and some rhythm and I have done this on this rally.”

6. Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud (Ford Focus RS WRC 08)

“IT was OK this morning, the road was quite nice, the grip was fantastic from ice. I have to stay fourth now.”

11. Petter Solberg/Phill Mills (Citroën Xsara)

“It’s been a good morning, we’ve been taking some time from Matthew but you know I am here for fun. I want to get to the finish of the rally and then maybe we can think about the rest of the year.” 

16. Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin (Ford Focus RS WRC 08)

“The first stage was great. The last stage we had a problem with the intercom, we had to swop helmets but in the end we lost less than 1 second. It was a big push in the last 4 km. It will be tough this afternoon, the stages will cut up but we’re going to give it a go.”

5. Urmo Aava/Kuldar Sikk (Ford Focus RS WRC 08)

“I wanted a bit more over steer from the car and we got that by changing the right ride and the balance of the car. This helped me particularly in tight corners, I’ve enjoyed the stages this morning.”

18. Mads Ostberg/Ole Kristian Unnerud (Subaru Impreza WRC 2008)

“We had some problems with the dampers this morning but I think we had it fixed, the times have improved this morning, we should have done this on day1.”

46. Patrick Sandell/Emil Axelsson (Skoda Fabia Super 2000)

“We had a bad first stage, we had two spins and dropped a lot of time and then, in the last two stages, there are some very long fast sections and this is where our car is losing time.”

Published: 2009-02-15 12:52