Post-event press conference - Sweden.

Sunday, 10th February 2008

Drivers / co-driver: Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila (BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT), Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen (BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT) and Gigi Galli and Giovanni Bernacchini (Stobart VK M-Sport Ford RT).

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MW:
It’s just a shame I’m going home. As you can imagine, I’m not going to leave an open cheque for them!

Q:
Jari-Matti stepped up to the team after Marcus Grönholm’s retirement and you have been quoted as saying that it would have been ideal for him to gain more experience within Stobart before stepping up to the works team. Did you imagine Jari-Matti would get a win this year and how impressed are you by his performance this weekend?

MW:
I think I was right after Monte-Carlo, but he’s proved me wrong here! I made no secret; it would have been nice to have kept Marcus, but he (Jari-Matti) learned a lot in Monte-Carlo. There was a lot of pressure on him stepping into the BP team. His performance in Norway (last year) was very good – we knew he would be quick. The main thing, like he says, is to keep the concentration up. I did expect the win, but I expected it in the second half of season. There are exciting times ahead. Mikko has done a fantastic job. When Seb went off and we sent a message to Mikko, I could see straight away that his pace dropped. Maybe he was thinking that Jari-Matti would be under pressure as well…

Q:
This has been a tough rally, without much snow, though.

MW:
There are two groups of people I want to thank. Firstly, it’s the organisers. I know how difficult it is for them. I have been here in conditions similar to this and it’s tough. But this rally has created more drama than any other in the last few seasons – that’s a real positive for the sport. We’re here to entertain and that’s happened this weekend. The organisers deserve credit for running the event. And to Pirelli. To step in without mousse in these conditions was an incredible job. They’re two people that certainly deserve mentioning.

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Question from the floor.

Q: Martin Holmes (Martin Holmes Rallying, UK).
Did you expect the tyres to work as well as they did?

J-ML:
I didn’t expect so good a job. There was so much gravel and there were still studs there and the tyres were very strong. We hit some stones and didn’t have a puncture, only the wheel was damaged.