[Speaking in the mid-day service] "The morning was okay. I've made a couple of small mistakes in some corners, but really it's nothing. I mean, losing one second in such a long stage isn't so bad. We slowed a little bit coming past Mikko [Hirvonen], there was some smoke coming from the car and when you see that, you always want to see the crew. We saw they were okay and carried on."
Francois Duval [OMV Kronos Citroen WRT]:
"Unfortunately it is impossible to attack the first three. But we can still be satisfied with our performance. I think I should be able to go better tomorrow, as the stages are narrower and more twisty."
[Speaking in the mid-day service] "The suspension is too soft. I tried to make a change with the clicks after the first stage, but it wasn't so good. Now we have to change the suspension completely, the car is understeering and oversteering too much."
Petter Solberg [Subaru WRT]:
“Today has been a bit frustrating as we have finished 5.3 seconds behind Duval in fifth place, but I had a stall at the start of SS5 in which I lost six or eight seconds and we have had troubles with grip today. Still, we are in fifth overall after the first leg and close enough to fourth for it to be possible so we will keep pushing. We have won here in the past and hope that we can have a good result this weekend.”
[Speaking in the mid-day service] "We will make a few adjustments to the car during this service as I wasn't comfortable with grip this morning. On such long and winding stages even small problems can lose you a lot of time by the finish, and SS3 was the second longest of the rally. But after the service hopefully things will be better and we will keep pushing this afternoon to find more speed."
Jari-Matti Latvala [Stobart M-Sport Ford WRT]:
“I'm very happy with the first day here, everything has been really good. The car is working well and the setup I have now is nearly perfect. Every tyre choice we have made today has been perfect also and the choices have given me confidence to push harder. I have been concentrating today on improving my driving and this has been working and now my confidence is quite high. However, I still must be careful as I nearly got caught out on some gravel today, it was on the exit of a corner and we were very sideways, I was lucky to get away with it. Overall I have been pleased with my start today and hopefully we can improve tomorrow and move up a couple of places.”
