FLASH INFO

Friday 3 August
SS8 Lankamaa 1 23.06 km

Conditions on the stage: It´s quite cloudy now but feels warm. The road is still very dry so it might bring up some dust but the breeze is expected to blow it away. Lots of small stones on the wide road. The smaller road is supposed to cut up so there might be ruts to tease the smaller cars.´

The top four drivers were within 1.2 seconds on SS8.

1 Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen DS3 WRC)
´The car is sliding everywhere. We lose some time. We have a problem with the rear differential.´

2 Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Citroen DS3 WRC)
´Lots of loose rocks - I was sure I had a puncture. We go flat out! I don´t think Seb´s diff problems had so much of an effect.´

3 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´At least we are not losing anymore. For once, we were faster than Loeb. I have a good and easy feeling now.´

4 Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´It´s so close. Happy with everything - car works well.´

5 Ott Tänak/Kuldar Sikk (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´A really nice but tricky stage. Really loose. I tried to do some changes. We´ll carry on and let´s see.´

6 Evgeny Novikov/Denis Giraudet (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
Giraudet: ´My back is still very painful. At least we are the fastest ambulance. ´ They had added some padding to his seat and he lifted his body and moved sideways at the finish to give his back some relief.

7 Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot (Citroen DS3 WRC)
Atkinson went out on SS8 and lost a lot of time. There was only some slight damage to the front of the car. ´I misheard a pacenote and that was it.´

8 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Citroen DS3 WRC)
´Not bad. Tried to go faster but it was rough. I hope I can continue like this.´

Co-driver: ´The grip was consistent and the pacenotes were good.´

10 Mads Östberg/Jonas Andersson (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´It was very difficult -tried to do some adjustments. No good corners. I felt the rear was out all the time.´
12 Armindo Araújo/Miguel Ramalho (Mini John Cooper Works WRC)
´A lot of loose gravel, slided a lot and lost a lot of time.´

14 Paulo Nobre/Edu Paula (Mini John Cooper Works WRC)
´The point is that this stage is really fast and narrow - really pleasurable. You feel the blood in your veins. I really enjoyed.´

15 Martin Prokop/Zdenek Hruza (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´No grip at all - it was like on ice. I tried to find the grip. It´s something new for me and I´m trying to do my best.´

17 Jari Ketomaa/Mika Stenberg (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´Big misfiring in the engine but there´s nothing I can do. Nobody seems to know what the problem is. I´m frustrated big time!´

18 Matti Rantanen/Mikko Lukka (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´I´m pushing a bit too much and it´s hard to find the right rhythm or balance. I´m taking the corners either too fast or too slow. The rear keeps sliding too much.´

19 Sebastian Lindholm/Timo Hantunen (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´Incredibly slippy. We are all over the road and getting nowhere. We had some slides that ended up in a complete standstill. The road will be clean for the top crews and they will be fine.´

20 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Skoda Fabia S2000)
´For me not so bad - I love this (didn´t see Atkinson while driving)´

32 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (Ford Fiesta S2000)
´A tricky stage. Difficult to find compromise.´

33 Per-Gunnar Andersson/Emil Axelsson (Proton Satria Neo S2000)
´Driving has been good all day. I was on the limit, drove the best I could.´

34 Juha Salo/Marko Salminen (Proton Satria Neo S2000)
´I did some stupid mistakes. Something is broken in the rear.´

43 Ken Block/Alex Gelsomino (Ford Fiesta RS WRC)
´Absolutely amazing. So quick, one of the best stages I´ve ever driven.´

49 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Ford Fiesta S2000)
´We are in the lead and I didn´t expect this. It´s a surprise to me.´

53 Riku Tahko/Markus Soininen (Mini John Cooper Works WRC)
´The time is quite disappointing. My driving was good so I thought the time would have been better.´

Julkaistu: 3.8.2012 15:43

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