[Speaking on day one] "We weren't pushing too hard this morning, and things were looking good. We would have been in the points by the end of the day. The plan was to make no mistakes and we did that, so it's a shame to be stopped by something that's out of our hands. We'll use tomorrow to do a little bit of testing and see how the car feels, and then see how quick we can push."
Toni Gardemeister [Suzuki WRT]: [retired from event in SS11 - mechanical]
[Speaking on day two] "There are positives to take away from this rally. We have been quick, quicker than before with the gap regularly below one second per kilometre down on the leader. But when you have some trouble, it's always disappointing. We were about half way through the stage when I noticed the car was starting to lose power. Then the engine temperature was going up. I thought this could be because we were in a very twisty section of the stage - it's normal for the temperature to rise in this condition. But when it carried on going up, then I knew we had to switch off - the radiator was broken. My shoulder was also hurting a little. I hit a big rock early in the stage, which knocked it badly. I had to drive one-handed for a while again. The next round of the championship takes us home to Finland and that's an event I'm really looking forward to. We will have a test and some new parts to come from the car. It's nice to know the SX4 WRC will be even faster when we get to my home."
Per-Gunnar Andersson [Suzuki WRT]: [retired from event in SS11 – electrical]
[Speaking on day two] "I was really looking forward to driving the SX4 WRC again today. It had been a really exciting day behind the wheel yesterday and I wanted to show what we could do again on day two. The time in the first stage was good, we were in the top 10 again, but then a couple of hundred metres off the start line in SS11 the car stopped. Yes, it's disappointing not to finish, but look at the times - we were setting top six times yesterday, which shows how far the car has come. I'm excited about the second half of the season already!"
Gigi Galli [Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT]: [retired from event after day two - exhaustion and dehydration]
"It is a very disappointing end to a tough event that we started really well on. The first day was fantastic for me and we managed the performance well and found a good compromise between preserving the tyres and keeping a fast speed; indeed we would have been leading for the whole day without the time penalty. But the days were long and hard and I was totally exhausted on Saturday evening and needed some treatment from the doctor for dehydration. I didn't feel any better on Sunday and it wasn't possible or safe for me to continue."
Team principals:
Malcolm Wilson [BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT - team director]:
"Tactics won in the end and what our two young drivers did this weekend was nothing short of special. It was a brave decision to drop time on Friday but it proved the right one. I'm proud of the drivers and the team and it's a great way to end the first half of the season. It was the drive of Mikko's life and it's fantastic to lead both series going into the mid-season break. Days don't get much better than this."
Mark Deans [Ford of Europe - motorsport director]:
"The consistency required in achieving 100 consecutive points finishes is remarkable as the WRC is the toughest competition in motorsport for production-based cars. It demanded an outstanding blend of speed, strength and reliability from the Focus RS World Rally Car as well as some sterling performances from the drivers behind the wheel. It was a perfect weekend for the team and a great weekend for Ford, with six Focus cars in the top 10."
