FLASH INFO
Saturday 4 August
SS17 Ouninpohja 1 33.01 km
Conditions on the stage: Huge crowds out there but they are all behaving well. No sign of rain, but the road is slippery.
1 Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen DS3 WRC)
´OK, no problem. I took a good rhythm and I saw I was good on splits. It´s a tricky stage. Now I can lose a bit but I can make it up the second time.´
2 Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Citroen DS3 WRC)
´It was slipping and sliding with lots of loose sand. I think we won´t match Loeb but we´ll keep on trying until the end. Now we know how the tyres work here.´
3 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´I´m excited. The last time the stage was exactly like this was in 2003. There are two surprising jumps. We were a bit in a ditch in there once.´
4 Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´It starts to move a lot; it´s a very loose stage. It´s OK, but I think the cars at the back will do better. I have to take care of the tyres too.´
5 Ott Tänak/Kuldar Sikk (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´That is a really crazy stage. The beginning was slippy.´
6 Evgeny Novikov/Denis Giraudet (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
Novikov has overshot a junction, reversed and got back on the road. ´Very difficult and slippery. We are learning. It went OK.´
7 Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot (Citroen DS3 WRC)
´It´s the trickiest stage. I was sliding massively but still good fun. Lots of loose gravel and slippery.´
8 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Citroen DS3 WRC)
´My pacenotes were not that good and I lost confidence. I slowed down and didn´t take risks.´
10 Mads Östberg/Jonas Andersson (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´The car is working. I took some time from Tänak so we´ve done what we wanted. I didn´t push any extra. I try to change the car a bit.´
14 Paulo Nobre/Edu Paula (Mini John Cooper Works WRC)
´I had pressures. It´s like going to Turini. I respected this stage and didn´t jump. If I go really fast then I can´t finish here. Next time I will jump.´
15 Martin Prokop/Zdenek Hruza (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´I can´t say how it was. It was too much! The beginning was not written well in the notes. I sort of got lost on a crest and jumped like never before. Luckily the car survived the jump.´
17 Jari Ketomaa/Mika Stenberg (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
Disappointed: ´It was not good, incredibly slippy, no grip, bad start, very difficult. The time is also bad.´
18 Matti Rantanen/Mikko Lukka (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
Rantanen had visited a ditch but had managed to get back on the road. ´It was pretty difficult. We went almost off the road one or two kms from the start. Tahko was also in trouble there.´
19 Sebastian Lindholm/Timo Hantunen (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´It´s a fabulous stage. I went off here and retired eight years ago, which still annoys me. I´ve waited for this for the whole rally.´
20 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Skoda Fabia S2000)
´Not so easy. I had problems with knowing where I was. I must follow the notes.´
21 Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Skoda Fabia S2000)
´It was a very difficult stage. I am correcting my pacenotes for next year
32 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (Ford Fiesta S2000)
Breen rolled big time but the crew have got out of the car safely.
33 Per-Gunnar Andersson/Emil Axelsson (Proton Satria Neo S2000)
´I´m sorry for Breen, he rolled in Kakaristo. He had done a fantastic job so far.´ Breen rolled four times there.
34 Juha Salo/Marko Salminen (Proton Satria Neo S2000)
´I was too careful and we slid in the beginning . My driving style is still wrong.´
36 Yazeed Al Rajhi/Michael Orr (Ford Fiesta RRC)
´I enjoyed. A lot of crests and blind corners. Next time it will go better. I hope I won´t lose it all.´
49 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Ford Fiesta S2000)
´It is an incredible stage. I´m on a high. A couple of notes could have been better but it was good for a first-timer.´
51 Jarkko Nikara/Petri Nikara (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX)
´It was quite OK. I was a bit careful with the jumps since this is a group N car.´ Nikara set an amazing time.
53 Riku Tahko/Markus Soininen (Mini John Cooper Works WRC)
Tahko has parked up on the stage.
54 Karl Kruuda/Martin Järveoja (Ford Fiesta S2000)
´You haven´t driven rally before you´ve been here! The pacenotes were flying everywhere. My back hurts - I want to get out of the car now...´
55 Sander Pärn/Ken Järveoja (Subaru Impreza WRX Sti)
´It´s a crazy stage. My pacenotes were quite dangerous and bad.´
82 Molly Taylor/Sebastian Marshall (Citroen DS3 R3T)
Taylor did not make it to Ouninpohja but had retired after SS15. Comment after SS15: ´There´s something wrong with the engine; it´s way down on power - it´s like driving a road car.´
98 Joonas Lindroos/Pasi Kilpeläinen (Citroen C2 R2)
Has a strong lead in his class. ´The engine didn´t run well on low revs so I had to keep taking it almost to the upper limit.´
105 Pontus Tidemand/Stig Rune Skjærmoen (Ford Fiesta R2)
Tidemand is second in WRC Academy here. ´We couldn´t quite fight for the victory but this is an important result when you think about the title fight.´
106 Brendan Reeves/Rhianon Smyth (Ford Fiesta R2)
Reeves is third in WRC Academy here. ´We had a tight battle with Timo (van der Marel) until the end but unfortunately he went off now. It´s a shame. Now I am back on the podium and it´s nicer to travel the long way back home to Australia.´
108 John MacCrone/Stuart Loudon (Ford Fiesta R2)
He slowed down having seen car 107 off the road.
109 Elfyn Evans/Philip Pugh (Ford Fiesta R2)
Evans is the WRC Academy winner here. ´It´s fantastic. I don´t think our time reflects what we could do. We just had to finish safely.´ He says with tears in his eyes: ´This is a special event to win. We have a lot to learn in the world championship. I´m now looking forward to next events, which are on tarmac.´
Julkaistu: 4.8.2012 17:44
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