News and quotes SS 16

The halfway point of the final day for this year’s Central European Rally arrived with a first run through the 14.87 km Passauer Land stage which will provide the grand finale for the event on the second pass. More drama struck immediately as Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen was forced to abandon the start due to a technical issue with the hybrid system. When the Norwegian did get underway on hard tyres he overshot a temporary chicane and clouted a straw bale but was able to continue without damage. Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta took the provisional fastest time despite hitting an animal that ran out into his path and in the changing road conditions the remaining drivers struggled to get close to his pace. Ultimately nobody was able to outpace the Japanese star, who took the win, while the lead battle between the Toyota of Sébastien Ogier and Hyundai’s Ott Tänak remained on a knife-edge. In WRC2, Nickolay Gryazin’s Citroën continued to maintain his huge advantage over the Škoda of Oliver Solberg and local hero Filip Mareš in his Toyota.

#16 Adrien Fourmaux (FRA) / Alexandre Coria (FRA), Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid

“It’s good to have some positive on the rally so I’m really pleased with that (winning SS15). A bit less with that one it’s faster and I miss a little bit of precision, just fine tuning, but generally it’s definitely better than the last two days. Full soft (tyres) that was okay, I tried to save them also on the braking to not kill them but for sure the temperature is getting up.”

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

“Hybrid… I didn’t have the green light so I can’t move the car. Not the best build-up. The whole weekend’s been tough.”

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

“I don’t know what happened it was at the start (with Mikkelsen) – everything okay, the green light? I’m happy to not have the hybrid on this car finally.”

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

“We did quite a big change yesterday evening just to try something and it’s not really working for me. Now we are stuck with it but at least we tried it and we know for Japan. It’s just something that changed the balance a bit towards the rear on throttle and it’s a bit too much but on very tight corners it’s working so it’s good to try it here.”

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

“Something crossed the road in front of me. Couldn’t avoid.”

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

“The car is not good. I was struggling like hell with the front – no precision and lots of movement and just no confidence that the car will turn so very bad. Different profile, I don’t know. Overall I don’t feel (the road) so well, so I took it steady, the road is getting dirty, lots of leaves and you don’t know how good is the grip so I try to do as good as I can without risking.”

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

“The feeling wasn’t brilliant to be honest. I just struggled for ultimate confidence, and didn’t push enough. The corners are getting more dirty all the time but not good enough in there. For sure (tyre choice – hard front soft rear is) a contributor, but I still felt it was better but probably too careful with it.” 

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

“I try to do all I can. I don’t know how much we can prepare we just can do all we can so we definitely try.”

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

“It was okay stage. After all it’s not so easy to be perfect everywhere. Not perfect stage but a good one. It’s always fun, I always enjoy the fight with Ott. I say it yesterday – fighting a World champion is always fun so we love this kind of fight I think. Both of us.”

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

“I just driving safe, trying to enjoy the car. For sure maybe we are not on the best tyre choice but I decide to go on the safe tyre choice and just to make the clean line, enjoy, but still there are sort of cuts I would not expect especially some corners where it’s too tight and the line is going too early so sometimes I have to not drive on the pace notes just drive by the line.”

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

“It was okay, yeah, never done this stage before and the others have. It was a little bit tricky with some different leaves and gravel and so on but it’s okay. Car is good.”

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

“For sure it would be massive successful for us, massive result, but still two stages to go and it is not easy. I took it carefully but still trying to keep the optimum pace and it’s not easy to find the balance.”