Photo: Benjamin A. Ward/Rally Norway

End of stage comments SS19 Elverum 1

Feb. 15, 2009

1. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroën C4)

“This stage was much better for me, there is no loose snow so I had good grip. I am sure that my time will not be as bad as the first stage, that was very difficult because I don’t think they snow ploughed it so I had a lot of loose snow to drive through.”

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

He looked stunned when he looked at Seb‘s time and said that it is an incredible time from Sebastien, absolutely unbelievable; “I have been totally flat out too.”

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

“Yes I am driving for third place now. Although we have a problem with the wind screen misting up so there is no point for us to risk everything.”

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

“It’s ok for us today, I like the stages so far, I can keep ahead of Sordo I think.”

2. Dani Sordo/Marc Marti (Citroën C4)

“The first stage I seemed to lose a lot of time but this one I drove well, I don’t know if I can catch Henning, maybe.”

11. Petter Solberg/Phill Mills (Citroën Xsara)

Didn’t look very happy. “No problems with the car, I am doing what I can but the time is not there, I can’t say more than that.”

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

“It’s very close with Petter and I will have a go at trying to catch him. On this stage we were one second up after one km then there was a narrow twisty section and we lost time to him but now we have pulled some time back.”

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

“The first stage I was maybe a little bit slow but this one was OK I am happier with things today.”

12. Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Citroën C4)

Damaged to the front left of the car, no comment

8. Conrad Rautenbach/Daniel Barrit (Citroën C4)

“This stage was awesome, absolutely flat out for the last 5 km and I really enjoyed it.”

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

“The car is not 100% today and we also have some problems with the front screen not being heated so it is misting up. I was more happy yesterday to be honest.”

7. Evgeny Novikov/Dale Moscatt (Citroën C4)

“I like these stages but on the first one I made some mistakes and on this one I went into a snow bank for a bit.”

20. Anders Grondal/Maria Andersson  (Subaru Impreza WRC)

 “I had a small problem, I did a spin at a hair pin, that cost me some time.”

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

“I had a spin on the first stage but this one was fine. But it is so fast and I don’t want to use maximum revs in 6th gear because I don’t want to break the engine. So this is the time to be a little careful.”

49 Eyvind Brynildsen/Denis Giraudet (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)

“Still we are focused on keeping our second place because we want the points but we took an other 15 seconds from the leader here and that was good fun.”

31. Martin Prokop/Jan Tomanek (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)

“We are just driving normally and we don’t have to push now but this was a very good stage and we liked it.”

47. Armindo Araujo/Miguel Ramalho (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)

“Everything was OK in this stage, no problems at all, but it was very fast at the end.”

45 Patrick Flodin/Göran Bergsten (Subaru Impreza WRX STi)

“I did a good time but I think Mikkelsen may go faster. I lost some time on the first few km when I was a bit slow but then I found my confidence and went faster but it is so easy to lose a few seconds on these stages.”

59. Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Subaru WRX Sti)

Came to the end of the stage with the front right tyre punctured and destroyed. Hi spared tyre is also punctured so he put the spare on the right rear wheel and put a good tyre on the front right tyre.

“It was on the outside of a corner, suddenly I hit a rock on the road, it happened after 2 or 3 km and I had to drive all the rest of the stage with this puncture.”

Published: 2009-02-15 11:14