News and Quotes SS 11 (Schärdinger Innviertel 1)

The Central European Rally completed its first pass through the only all-Austrian stage of the tri-nation event, the 17.35km Schärdinger test, where dry-looking asphalt concealed slippery secrets. M-Sport Ford driver Grégoire Munster went to investigate the local fields and soon afterwards Takamoto Katsuta also dropped 17 seconds with his own arable excursion. Rally leader Thierry Neuville also spun his Hyundai through 360 degrees but managed to survive with his tyres intact. A second spin then pitched him into a field after losing front end grip in the middle of a corner. More than half a minute was dropped in total, putting team-mate and title rival Ott Tanak into the best possible place to keep the drivers’ championship fight alive and giving hope to Toyota of retaining its manufacturers’ crown. As the field returns to Germany for the mid-point service, Sébastien Ogier returns to the overall rally lead for Toyota, with Tänak second, the Toyota of Elfyn Evans in third and Neuville in fourth.

#9 Andreas Mikkelsen (NOR) / Torstein Eriksen (NOR) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid

“There has been tractors on there, it’s like ice, there is no grip at all. Big surprise.”

#19 Jourdan Serderidis (GRE) / Frédéric Miclotte (BEL) Ford Puma Rally1 (non-Hybrid)

“Indeed it’s damp, dry and I think it will be worse with the passes. It is quite damp and slippery indeed but it is nice stage.”

#13 Grégoire Munster (LUX) / Louis Louka (BEL), Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid

“Sometimes the grip is gone suddenly and it was a wide road so I turned in and it just went fully straight so luckily it was a field. We lost a bit of time in the grass just trying to get forward but okay. At the beginning it’s quite dry so you want to push and then kilometres after kilometres it start to be a bit greasy so you need to calm down the pace.”

#5 Sami Pajari (FIN) / Enni Mälkönen (FIN), Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid

“Maybe I’m still too slow – no any moments I’m just in the middle of the road. Really nice stage, I really enjoyed it and I thought it would be more challenging or maybe it was more consistent but I had a nice clean enjoyable stage. No moments not any drama.”

#18 Takamoto Katsuta (JPN) / Aaron Johnson (IRL), Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid

“Just slippy, for sure it was a big surprise. It was changing a lot after all of the cars. Very difficult. I felt like okay on the limit on the braking then I saw maybe I could make it but I didn’t take risk because there was a ditch so I just decided to go straight… it felt like I was 10 minutes on the grass.”

#33 Elfyn Evans (GBR) / Scott Martin (GBR), Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid

“It seems (better). I was a bit less happy in here, we made a few (setup) changes to try and help and I’m not sure it was helping the feeling so much but the car was working fine.” 

#8 Ott Tänak (EST) / Martin Järveoja (EST), Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid

“Many surprises which basically I think for the first cars it’s more difficult to spot so difficult to point the balance.”

#17 Sébastien Ogier (FRA) / Vincent Landais (FRA), Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid

“A little moment sideways mid-stage, but we go in thinking it would be a tricky stage and actually there was some sections with really good grip but some others where there was not.”

#11 Thierry Neuville (BEL) / Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL), Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid

“My pace notes was too fast. It’s a wide road and obviously in the dry maybe it would have worked but just my pace notes already was optimistic and the car never turned because it was slightly greasy so I decide to go in the field but on the way out there was no way to get out so we got stuck. (The first incident) was simply a spin because I hit a bit of grass I think I went  too quickly on throttle but yeah the second one I couldn’t avoid. There was no other way to get out so I had to try… but we are here.”

#22 Nikolay Gryazin (BUL) / Konstantin Aleksandrov (ANA), Citroën C3 Rally2

“The grip feels better there, the notes from the gravel crew was good but the grip itself we were not expecting slippery. In the last part we had some drizzle. It starts to be more wet… when you drive it’s like some battlefield on the road. You see the lines, a lot of dirt on the road, after where somebody came back (on the road) so few times we were also like sliding because you see the line and the car slides with this line so few times I was like ‘oi’ and after I just slow down because I just don’t need any problems.”

#20 Oliver Solberg (SWE) / Elliott Edmondson (GBR), Škoda Fabia RS Rally2

“Very tricky conditions in there but I changed the car completely now like yesterday and this is much, much better so at least it’s predictable. But there was one tight left-to-right tried to cut a lot and it hooked me in there so I had a half-spin so not great but at least the car is much nicer to drive now and at least I know a bit where the grip is.”

#30 Filip Mareš (CZE) / Ravovan Bucha (CZE), Toyota GR Yaris Rally2

“Surprisingly the mostly dry stage from my point of view so we expected something different but okay, driving was good. Honestly we are trying to keep out place because the guys ahead of us are really fast and we have a good gap so we are trying to manage and enjoy as well at the same moment.”