Q:
When Marcus Grönholm retired at the end of last year did you think it may be an easier fight for the title this year? What are your thoughts now after three rallies?
SL:
I didn’t know. A lot of people told me it would be easy to win. I said no, Hirvonen will be fast and Latvala is taking experience. But Latvala has been faster than we expected every time. He is a new problem! Now I must fight harder again. Argentina is a nice rally as well. I hope we will be able to fight again for victory. The tyres will be more difficult. Here it is very hot and good for hard compound tyres. Argentina is colder and softer and hard tyres can be a problem.
Q:
Daniel congratulations. From what you’ve seen so far of the competition in 2008, how hard do you think it will be to secure wins in both Championships this year?
Daniel Elena:
I don’t know, it is too early to say. Only three races so far and two wins for us. Okay, we made a mistake in Sweden but now we will see. Our last victory on gravel was one year ago in Argentina, so to win again was good for us for the Championship. Dani (Sordo) had a little problem and no chance to take a good result here. The times of Dani were very good and I am confident for the rest of season.
Q:
Chris, congratulations on achieving your best-ever result of second overall. After Jari- Matti’s problems, when he dropped behind you by just over a minute, was that time cushion comfortable enough for you to relax at all through Sunday’s stages, or were you also concerned for punctures?
Chris Atkinson:
We never had the pace of these two. We were trying to hang in there. When we were comfortable we backed off when Jari-Matti (Latvala) had his problems.
Q:
At the start of Day 2 you were only 12.8 seconds adrift of Sébastien; did you plan to try and catch him or just hold position?
CA:
No. We had the idea to keep the same pace and not push. I was sure he would go away and take some time. We still have some work to do. This is a good step in the right direction for
Subaru. It was good with no problems. I knew that I could even lose a second per kilometre today and that was no problem. I drove around every rock and was quite careful. On the first day I hit rocks and got no punctures, so that says something positive about the tyres.
Q:
You didn’t seem to have any major problems this weekend. How much were you driving on the limit and did you have any moments during the event?
CA:
We hit a rock in fifth gear, but the tyre stayed up, even though we bent the rim. Not too many moments really.
Q:
It was the first time for the Pirelli gravel tyres to be used, how did you find them? How much of a difference was there performance-wise?
