EV:
Good. Here we will drive the new car. In Greece and Turkey I drive N12 car, but here it's N14. It will be good for these roads – it's not so hot or rough as Greece and Turkey.
Q:
Is there any news on next year for you?
EV:
Now I focus on this year. After this rally we will decide what we do next. This rally is very important for me.
Q:
Chris you have a wild card entry for the PWRC here in New Zealand. It's a great opportunity for you to pit yourself against the rest of the production field…
Chris West:
Absolutely. Both Hayden [Paddon] and myself have been fortunate enough to represent New Zealand on the home WRC event. It's up to us to turn it into the result it deserves. We're looking forward to the event. It's a great spectacle be part of and it's also a round of our home Championship.
Q:
There is always a battle to be the top New Zealander; could that be you this year or will Richard Mason make it three in a row?
CW:
I think it's not unstoppable. Richard is strong here, he puts a lot of focus and resource into it. We have been in the same position in 2006, but retired, and last year we stayed out of the Championship and we came to put some miles of testing in on the car, ready for this year. I hope it's third time lucky for us. We've got some good machinery, some good gear. I hope it's our year, but let's wait and see.
Q:
The winter has been quite bad here, how has that affected the stages?
CW:
I'm sorry to have to say this, but I think it's going to be the roughest rally we've seen for some time. That's down to the weather. It's really softened up tomorrow and Sunday. Even though it's sunny, there's going to be a lot of stones exposed because the roads are quite soft. Saturday's stages are in good shape, though. Okay, they're soft, but they should be good for those drivers further down the field. Put it this way, I wouldn't want to be running number one with all of that gravel around.
Q:
Do you think it's going to be one of toughest events?
CW:
The road conditions are not as smooth as in the past, as I said. There is a lot of exposed stone and conditions overall are rougher than we've seen in years.
