[Speaking in the mid-day service] "It was slippery and I couldn't push any harder. At times I was driving from ditch to ditch and in places I eased off because I didn't want to go off the road. I'm not sure if I was losing time because I was cleaning the loose gravel, or because I was breaking the damp surface and the cars behind had better grip. This afternoon the roads will be rutted so I hope to find more grip and speed."
Chris Atkinson [Subaru WRT]:
"Yeah, it's not been a bad day today. It's good to get through the day with no problems though as it's been tough. The guys behind are going well and are fast, so we'll have to pick it up a bit tomorrow to stay in the fight. It's a close battle for third, and there are a few people quite close who will join the fight tomorrow so it'll be hard, that's for sure. I hope we can find a bit more to stay in the top five, but it's not a bad start."
[Speaking in the mid-day service] "OK the conditions are very slippery and it's not been easy this morning, but we're in a good position. The guys behind us are close so we have to keep pushing this afternoon, as there's still a long way to go. We had no problems this morning, everything was okay. The stages are quite soft from the rain this week. They were OK for us this morning as we were third on the road but they'll be quite rutted this afternoon. If we stay here until the end of the day I'll be happy."
Gigi Galli [Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT]:
"Today has been a good start to my home event and the feeling with the car is really good as you can see from my fastest time, the only problem was the puncture on stage 2 when we ran wide on a corner and hit some rocks. We were quite lucky because the Pirelli tyres remained strong and did their job and stayed on the rim until the end of the stage. Things are going well, the car feels good and the plan is to push some more tomorrow and see if we can close the gap on the leaders."
