“Last week I did some training with a Finnish track expert who has won Finnish championships many times,” he confirmed. “From this he identified that my driving style on tarmac is far too aggressive so he showed me ways to make it smoother and I am hoping to put this into practice at Catalunya. It is something I am starting to understand but it will take time, so finishing the next two rallies and getting maximum experience is very important.
“Roads in Catalunya are wide but because there are lots of cuts there is always a lot of gravel on the road which can make things tricky.
“My goal for the event is a points’ finish and personally I want to try and make my style a lot smoother.”
Henning Solberg meanwhile will as normal be in the other
Stobart Ford car nominated to score manufacturers’ points and for the Norwegian this will be another tough test due to his lack of experience on asphalt.
He has been busy back home racing his WRC-spec go-kart to further his knowledge of tarmac driving and reckons that it should be of some help although the fact this will be his first ever WRC outing in Spain won’t help his cause.
“I have been learning a lot this year about tarmac driving and I took a lot out of Germany. We have been doing some more driving with the go-kart and it is helping me understand the lines and style I need to drive on tarmac,” he added.
“The roads are quite wide here which I think could help with my confidence but because I have never done the rally before I really don’t know what to expect. We started to put in much better times on the last day of Rally Germany which helped my confidence a lot.
“It would be great to finish in the points here but my main goal is to finish every stage and get the maximum experience on the tarmac roads.”
Despite Jari and Henning’s caution though, M-Sport boss, Malcolm Wilson reckons that they can both score.
“Both Jari-Matti and Henning have the potential to do very well here. Of all the tarmac rallies this year, this is probably the most suited to both drivers with its very fast and wide roads; and I can’t see why they both couldn’t finish in the points,” he summed-up.
