Red Bull Rally Team's Andreas Aigner has said that while it is looking good for him to take the PWRC title this season following his third win in succession on the Rally of Turkey, he isn't getting carried away as some of his closest rivals still have events in hand.
Aigner has taken in four of his six nominated events so far this year and with his two drop scores still to come in Finland and Japan, he knows Jari Ketomaa and Juho Hanninen will have a chance to cut his 16-point lead in Jyvaskyla and he will be powerless to intervene.
Speaking following his victory in Kemer, which allowed him to equal the record set by Toshi Arai in 2003 - the only other driver to have won three PWRC events in a row - he added that he is looking forward now to seeing what happens in Finland.
"Sure, three wins in a row are an incredible feeling because it doesn't happen too often. But for me it's the championship that continues to remain of paramount importance," he noted.
"We're now enjoying a sound lead, but you mustn't forget that I have done one more rally than my strongest competitor [Jari] Ketomaa [who is joint second in the standings with Patrik Sandell] and two more than [Juho] Hanninen [who has scored 12 points].
"But these two have now been put on the spot, they have yet to score. And this has exactly been my goal here – to put pressure on my competitors with a top result.
"In New Zealand [my next PWRC event], I must try be more careful. Maybe fourth or fifth place is good for me. I'm going to be careful and not go off the road."
Asked about the event in Turkey in more detail, he conceded that it wasn't easy and that it is very tough on the cars: "We did a good job. The car is so strong. On these rough rallies, you need the car to be strong. All of the team did a very good job," he continued. "I tried to be careful from the start and then we saw that we we're on the pace.
