"Both Petter and Chris performed very well in some of the trickiest conditions we’ve seen this year, and they should both be very pleased with their positions. It is a very good start to the event, and is testament to the amount of work the whole team are putting in. It is a long rally so we will have to work hard to maintain this momentum over the next two days."
Malcolm Wilson [Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT - team boss]:
“It has been a superb drive from Gigi today especially in such treacherous conditions. I’m disappointed we dropped him 20 seconds with the penalty for leaving service late, otherwise he would have been second overall but I am delighted he has posted a fastest time today. Matthew has got through a day which has been one of the most difficult he has encountered in his career. He has got to the end without any major issues and is in a good points’ position. Tomorrow is going to be another tough and long day and hopefully the guys can continue with their speed and advance up the leaderboard.”
Malcolm Wilson [BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT - team director]:
“This was probably the most difficult we've had since we launched the new Focus RS in Finland last August. We were in an incredible position after the first stage only to lose Jari-Matti and then Mikko after an uncharacteristic mistake. But the Focus RS won seven out of the nine stages, and that's quite some statistic."
Nobuhiro ‘Monster’ Tajima [Suzuki WRT - team boss]:
"We knew from the very beginning that this was going to be a tough rally, and this has proved to be the case. Sometimes you learn lessons the hard way. At least now we are hopefully in a position to re-start with both cars tomorrow and continue to increase our knowledge of this event and these very difficult conditions. Toni proved that we had the pace to run comfortably within the points places today under extremely tricky circumstances: now we have to build on this base in order to improve the performance and the reliability. There is still a long way to go, and there are many opportunities ahead of us."
Mario Isola [Pirelli - rally manager]:
"The decidedly harsh weather conditions were nonetheless not too tough on our hard compound Scorpion tyres, which fulfilled their role very well. In fact, they offered a great deal of grip on some extremely slippery surfaces. The performance our tyres provided – considering just how bad the road surfaces were today – has proved to be more than postive so far."
