Photo: Benjamin A. Ward/Rally Norway

End of stage comment from SS20 Budor 1

Feb. 15, 2009

1. Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroën C4)

Top speed on that stage was 194 km ph.

“A difficult stage because there were places were I had to clean the road for the others.

Even though I was slow in the top speeds, I had a good time because of the traction out of the corners.”

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

His top speed was 202 km ph.

“The high speed in fact doesn’t make a lot of difference to your time in a special stage. It’s nice to be faster than Sebastien for a change.”

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

Top speed at 195 kmph.

“We cannot do very much and we are just playing safe to come third but I am getting more confident all the time.”

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

“I am happy.”

That’s all he would say in English to anybody.

2. Dani Sordo/Marc Marti (Citroën C4)

His top speed was 206 kmph.

“It is a fantastic experience to be driving so fast in these conditions.”

11. Petter Solberg/Phill Mills (Citroën Xsara)

Top speed at 208 kmph.

“It shows I have got guts, the trouble is I can’t make good stage times!”

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

He had major panic at the beginning of the stage. They had to change helmets because suddenly there was a very bad crackling sound so they swop their helmets so the driver could hear clearly what the co driver was saying.

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

“It’s very difficult to judge your braking position because it is unusually fast.”

Still not very happy.

12. Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Citroën C4)

”It’s a very nice stage and I was pushing quite hard.”

8. Conrad Rautenbach/Daniel Barrit (Citroën C4)

“The straights on that stage are so fast it reminded me of Africa. I lost my rhythm towards the end of the stage.”

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

“Our top speed is not at all high and I would have preferred more corners. We lack top end power.”

7. Evgeny Novikov/Dale Moscatt (Citroën C4)

“Now everything is OK, I made no mistakes on that stage.”

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

 “I am still making too many silly mistakes.”

22. Peter jr. Van Merksteijn/Eddy Chevaillier (Ford Focus RS WRC 06)
23 Peter Van Merksteijn/Erwin Mombaerts (Ford Focus RS WRC 07)

Junior went off the road and first person he blocked on the road was his father!

21. Eamonn Boland/MJ Morrisseey (Subaru WRX STi)

“We are enjoying ourselves, we are having a great time.”

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

“The stage was so fast that I had to slow down in top gear. We blew our engine in the last stage in Britain and I don’t want to do the same here.”

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

“I noticed the speed was 202 kmph so I decided to slow down. Interesting to see the Mitsubishi is faster in straight lines than the Super 2000.”

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

“Everything is going fine: last night we changed the central diff and whatever the problem was, it’s cured.”

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

“Nothing to report, our team is working well.”

40. Andis Neiksans/Peteris Dzirkals (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)

“Only one small mistake otherwise everything went well on the stage.”

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

“The engine on the Subaru is not so powerful and we lost a lot of time because the stages are essentially up hill.”

Published: 2009-02-15 12:41