News and quotes SS17 (Knaus Tabbert 2)

The penultimate stage of this year’s Central European Rally was the second pass through the 12.17 km Knaus Tabbert test. It had already caused drama earlier in the day, but even more was to come. Rally leader Sébastien Ogier crashed out just 600 metres into the stage. He was caught off guard by gravel that had been pulled onto the road by previous cars. As a result, Hyundai’s Ott Tänak is now 9.4 seconds ahead of Elfyn Evans’s Toyota, with championship leader Thierry Neuville moving up to third.

#16 Adrien Fourmaux (FRA) / Alexandre Coria (FRA), Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid:“I’m just trying to stay really clean because there’s a lot of dirt now, as expected. We have no gravel crew before us, so we had to guess where the big ruts would be. It was tricky in some spots. You have to remember what you saw in the morning and predict where the dirt will be. It requires more work.”

#19 Jourdan Serderidis (GRE) / Frédéric Miclotte (BEL), Ford Puma Rally1 (non-Hybrid):“It’s even trickier now, much dirtier, with lots of gravel. It feels really dangerous if you try to push. I’m not sure how you can finish the stage. It’s really difficult.”

#9 Andreas Mikkelsen (NOR) / Torstein Eriksen (NOR), Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid:“I’m saving my tyres for the power stage, trying to be as prepared as possible. We didn’t have any hybrid power now, so the car is kind of doing its own thing! Hopefully, we’ll have something for the power stage.”

#13 Grégoire Munster (LUX) / Louis Louka (BEL), Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid:“We found something that’s working better. It’s like a big test – sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t. Here, we made improvements, so we’ll try to continue in the same direction. We’ve tried many things, mostly with the front end – from the anti-roll bar to the damper to the differential. It’s good learning, and the feedback from the engineers is helpful.”

#18 Takamoto Katsuta (JPN) / Aaron Johnson (IRL), Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid:“It’s pretty dirty. I was cautious in some places because we didn’t have a gravel crew for this stage. It’s a reminder of the great job Juho and Jani did this weekend. It wasn’t easy without their help. My main goal is to stay in front of Ott. That’s our target.”

#11 Thierry Neuville (BEL) / Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL), Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid:“It was okay. I made some setup changes to see if we could improve a bit for the power stage. It was a decent run, no big push. The others are fighting for the win, and it wouldn’t make sense for us to match their speed in these conditions – it’s too risky. But it was a clean run for us. The setup felt better (switching to a harder setup), but I think we can push even more.”

#33 Elfyn Evans (GBR) / Scott Martin (GBR), Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid:“Ott must be doing well, but we had a clean stage. It’s not easy; you have to anticipate. I still don’t think this is the right way to go at this level, but okay.”

#8 Ott Tänak (EST) / Martin Järveoja (EST), Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid:“Without a gravel crew, it’s obviously very, very difficult at the limit. A few times, we went off the line, but it was okay. (On Ogier’s retirement) Excuse me? I’m sorry to hear that. I pushed hard too and went off a couple of times.”