"The first stage this morning was great but I went off the road briefly on the next about 1km after the start. I hit a rock and didn't know what damage I had done so I knew I had to ease off slightly," he confirmed.
"At one point I was worried I wouldn't make the finish. This afternoon I started to go flat out to try to take time from Loeb, but I realised it wasn't going to happen so I decided not to take any more risks. I needed more speed on Friday but apart from that, this was a good rally."
Jari-Matti Latvala took the final spot on the podium in the sister car and eventually finished just 4.7 seconds off his team-mate. It was a good performance from the 23-year-old, especially after he had lost around 1.5 minutes on day 1, when he hit a bank and picked up a puncture - dropping him to 14th. He put in a big push on day two and in the end won 10 of the 17 tests.
"It’s been an eventful rally," he noted. "On Friday I would have been happy to finish in the top five, so third is fantastic and gives me a big confidence boost. If I hadn't made the mistake [in SS2], who knows what the outcome might have been. Yesterday was amazing and I literally pushed my hardest all day.
"I said at the start of the week a podium was what I was aiming for, and I’ve achieved that - the job is done."
Stobart Ford’s
Gigi Galli was next up on his home event - although like Jari an error in SS2 put him on the back-foot. He too fought back however, setting nine top-three stages times, including winning SS4, to take his 15th WRC career stage win.
"It’s been a good finish to my home event. I was a bit disappointed on the first day after the puncture but [team boss] Malcolm Wilson told me that I could still be fourth and he was right," noted the Italian.
"It was important for me to finish well here and do a good job in front of my fans and my sponsors."
Further down the order Citroen’s Dani Sordo came in fifth having slipped back on day two, when he was second on the road, while
Chris Atkinson trailed the Spaniard home in sixth, albeit over 3 minutes further adrift. Atkinson and
Subaru had a dismal event and Chris only set two top five times.
