"We pushed hard today and that's all we could do. The balance was ok, we had a small problem in the middle loop of stages that the team fixed by the afternoon, but the speed just isn't there quite yet. It's frustrating for us and for the team, but we keep pushing."


Per-Gunnar Andersson [Suzuki WRT]:

"The SX4 WRC has been great today. We've had no problems. Given the testing we did, we've got a very good set-up with the car. We had a small problem in the second loop, when the back of the car was kicking up a little bit in the ruts and jumps, but the team was soon able to rectify that at service. After that, it was very good and we were able to close on Toni. The spin this morning was frustrating. We hit some water a couple of kilometers into the test, that pulled the wheel in and spun us into the ditch. The car was in the ditch. And facing the wrong direction. It cost us about 25s to get the car out and turned around, but we're in the points - and that's all that matters."


Toni Gardemeister [Suzuki WRT]:

"When we went off in the second run through Palsankyla this afternoon, it was a very, very big moment for us. I would say we went off the road at about 180kp/h - incredible! I really thought we were going to roll. We collected a puncture on the left-rear tyre which was there for the rest of the stage and I hurt my right shoulder in the impact. It was bad. Otherwise, the car has been good. It's a fantastic fight between myself and P-G and the best thing is that we're both in the top 10!"


Matti Rantanen [Ford Focus RS WRC 06]:

"We did well this afternoon and I'm satisfied now I've become used to the car. I was expecting quite a lot from Jukojärvi after last year. Our target now is to keep the gap between us and the top crews as small as possible and even narrow the gap between us and Loeb!"


Matthew Wilson [Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT]:

"In some sections today my splits have been really good and the car feels great. But in others I'm lifting too much and just struggling to find the confidence so I just need to get it to feel good everywhere. With this rally it takes a day to get your brain into Finland mode as the speeds and commitment needed here are different to anywhere else in the world. I haven't put a foot wrong today and just need to stay focused and get everything to work a bit better tomorrow."


Conrad Rautenbach [PH Sport-Citroen C4 WRC]:

"I am looking to have a go tomorrow. We have made a few changes to the car set up which seem to be working so I am going to leave it as it is for now."


Federico Villagra [Munchi's Ford WRT]:

"I couldn't find the rhythm on those last three stages. We are still running the harder springs we put on earlier and so we will change to the softer ones for tomorrow."


Khalid Al Qassimi [BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT]:

"I'm getting the feeling back after the break and I was happy with my times on these rapid stages. This is a very, very fast rally and on the open sections we gave it everything, but maybe I backed off a little on some of the more aggressive jumps. Today was about getting to the end and building confidence. The changing weather meant I had to adapt my driving in some areas. I tried to go full out on some of the later stages but there were times when I eased off as the road became slippery."





Notable retirements:

Jari-Matti Latvala [BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT]: [retired from day 1 in SS3 - went off the road - will re-start under the SupeRally on Saturday]

"I approached a left-right-left combination of bends and decided to keep the car as straight as I could. But I hit a rock, which wasn't in my pace notes, with the front right of the car. The handling felt strange immediately afterwards and suddenly I was thrown off the road into the ditch where the car half-rolled and hit a small tree. The data shows I was doing 117kph when I went off. I just thought this can't be happening to me again. I felt relaxed this morning and felt really confident in the opening stage and the early part of the next. I want to continue so that I can get my confidence back."





Team principals:

Olivier Quesnel [Citroen Total WRT - team principal]: