[Speaking in the mid-day service] “It’s so, so tough this morning, incredibly tricky, especially starting further down the order. Road position is important today as the stages only get worse. They’re so slippery with the rain and the mud, and we had full fog as well so visibility was bad. We’ll make some changes in service to help the balance of the car in these conditions. This afternoon the stages will be even more slippery and just a small change in the weather can make a big difference so we’ll see.”
Gigi Galli [Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT]:
“This morning was probably the two most difficult stages I have ever driven, the amount of road you couldn’t see was incredible. I am very happy with my times this afternoon and it feels great to set a fastest stage time already on gravel in the Focus. The people out on the stages have been amazing. There are so many fans, even on the road sections, but they are all being marshalled very safely and it is great to see them all out cheering despite the bad weather. Today was a great day and we will see if we can keep up the speed tomorrow and continue to set fast times. I am very close to the podium now but there is a long way to the finish and finishing is how you get good results.”
[Speaking in the mid-day service] “That was an incredible start to the rally and the first two stages were the most difficult I have ever seen. This is a new challenge for us in Argentina because I have only done three stages on gravel in the Focus WRC so I am constantly learning a new driving style this morning especially in the wet. The hard-compound Pirelli tyre is holding up very well and hopefully the conditions will dry up for the stages this afternoon.”
Daniel Sordo [Citroen Total WRT]:
"The conditions were effectively very hazardous. Running ninth on the road this morning meant we were forced to keep to the ruts made by the cars running ahead of us. The ground is very soft and there was precious little grip, so that was real handicap. I am nonetheless happy with my run and I was second quickest on SS4 which was new to me. After making a few adjustments to our set-up for the afternoon with the technical team, our C4 was very competitive and we were battling for a place on the podium when we were slowed by a power steering problem on SS8. There are still two more days to come to try to make up for lost ground and perhaps make it into the top three."
Federico Villagra [Munchi’s Ford WRT]:
"No problems, it was better than this morning."
Matthew Wilson [Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT]:
“Today has been quite an eventful one for all WRC crews and I’m happy to be here at the end of day 1 and in a good points’ position already. The first two stages this morning were unbelievably tricky but we got through them and started to set some reasonable times when it dried up in the afternoon. I hit a huge rock on stage 5 and we were up on two wheels and I thought the car was going to roll but luckily it landed back on four wheels and held its strength, only doing some small cosmetic damage. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s stages because I like them a lot better with the sandy base. It is going to be interesting and a lot different from how the roads were on recce but hopefully we can continue the pace and stay in the points.”
