Q:
You will be receiving the silver fern tonight as part of the Maori ceremony you are taking part in. When Sebastien received it he went on to win the rally and then 10 in row after that. Are you hoping its going to be as lucky for you?
CA:
I don't know. Does it work on Australians? I'll keep it if it works. Maybe we'll go hunting this afternoon instead and see what animals we can find…
Q:
You come to New Zealand on the back of a confidence boosting performance on your least favoured surface of asphalt in Germany. You picked up your first points on that surface – it was a good event for you…
Henning Solberg:
Two points; I was happy. No testing, just come and drive. I was happy. It's a very difficult rally. Last year, I helped Marcus Gronholm to win. “If you're going to win,” I told him, “you need to keep right over the water on the super special.” He did that and he won. It's true! He came to me and said: “Thanks to you.” It's true, if you look at the in-car, Sébastien was leading half way through the stage, then they went through the water and Marcus won. I told him. It's not the same this year, there's less water. This year I'm going to help myself. It's a good story. I got two beers for that!
Q:
A very different event here though, and you have yet to finish inside the points at this event. How difficult will it be to do that this weekend?
HS:
I almost reached top three in the last gravel rallies. If I can be top three or four here, I'll be very happy – that's my target.
Q:
You are just five points behind Petter [Solberg] in the Drivers' Championship – we know how you two love to battle, can you pass him here?
HS:
I will try. This will be a tactical rally. I'm not sure how they think, but I will try to be tactical for Saturday.
Q:
Is this a technical event?
HS:
For me I don't love this rally. I struggle with the pace notes and have rolled two times – and crashed in the Peugeot. This year I threw the pace notes away and started with new notes. I want to see if I can go faster.
Q:
We are past the halfway stage in the Championship and people are already starting to talk about next year. There has been speculation about you changing cars to a
Subaru – can you shed any light on your plans for next year?
