[Speaking after SS6] I actually stopped in the stage to get my bearings, the conditions were so bad.
Federico Villagra [Munchi's Ford WRT]:
[Speaking after SS6] I've had problems with fog and low cloud all day. You don't learn in these sorts of conditions, you just drive as best you can.
Notable retirements:
Sebastian Lindholm [Suzuki WRT]: [retired from leg 1 after SS2 mechanical]
It's a pity that we had this setback so early, but at least now we have a chance to get our car back to service and fix the brake pipe properly, so that we can continue to work on our testing programme for the remainder of the event. However, even during the short distance we have run, I can feel that the fundamental balance of the car is very good and that is an extremely positive sign for the future.
Jari-Matti Latvala [Stobart M-Sport Ford WRT]: [retired from leg 1 in SS6 went into some logs]
In the last stage everything went wrong. The visibility was really bad and my wipers were not working properly. The rain was so bad I couldn't see anything and then I hit a bank quite hard on a very rough part of the stage which damaged the bumper and made the wipers stop working completely. I really couldn't see anything at all and had to stop and get out of the car a few times to clean the mud off the windscreen. There was so much water coming up over the screen that I had no option but to stop in places. It was a really frustrating end to what was a very encouraging start to the rally.
[Speaking in the mid-day service] It was difficult in the fog and I could have done better but I just couldn't find my rhythm driving in the fog. We started off slowly but I really want to concentrate and improve my driving. Things did get much better on the next two stages though but I am still making some small mistakes and sliding too much in places. I don't want to play a risky game so early in the rally.
Henning Solberg [Stobart M-Sport Ford WRT]: [retired from leg 1 in SS6]
I was not happy this morning which started off with a puncture but that is a part of the game. I couldn't really find my rhythm today and then on stage 4 things got worse when the heater started playing up and I couldn't see anything for the whole stage. This got worse over the final two stages today and in the end Cato [Menkerud] had to use a stick with his hat on the end to try and clear the windscreen because the mist was just too bad to see anything. I just couldn't see a thing at all when the screen was misted up. Then it was even worse in the dark and I had no option but to crawl through the stages. I am so disappointed with today as we were hoping for things to start off well here.
