[Speaking in the mid-day service] "The roads are more slippery than I thought and it's hard to be fully confident. The gravel roads are as hard as asphalt so the tyres are spinning because they're not breaking the surface. I'm spending too much time sideways, which is wearing my tyres, so I need to change my driving style. It's so different from any other event and they're not my favourite roads, but I need to be able to drive on every surface. I had a few small escapes, but no big dramas."
Mikko Hirvonen [BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT]:
"Everything went to plan this afternoon. I didn't push too hard because there were many loose rocks in the road and I didn't want to hit one and damage the tyres. I attacked on the last gap to ensure the gap wasn't too large tonight and I'm happy with how it went today."
[Speaking in the mid-day service] "I had one of the luckiest escapes ever. My pace notes were too optimistic and I came over a crest too fast and went off when the road turned immediately afterwards. There were some huge rocks which I just managed to avoid but I slightly damaged the rear right suspension. It didn't cost much time but the handling felt strange afterwards. I'm happy with fifth and this would be a perfect position for the start order tomorrow, so long as the gap to the leader doesn't become bigger. "
Chris Atkinson [Subaru WRT]:
"Fifth overall is good from today – it’s in line with our target for this event, and I think we have set a realistic pace this weekend. We’ve not been taking any risks as the grip today has just been so tricky it would have been easy to make a mistake and throw it off. We had a couple of moments; a spin and we slid off the road, but fortunately there was no major damage. We have made some changes to the car today which made steps in the right direction, but there is still more to come for tomorrow. The heat was really ok today for us, no problems, but it’s taking a while to get used to the surface which is so different to anything else."
