Wales Rally GB : Stage Flash

Stage Flash - SS1.

23 October 2009, 11:48 am

Quotes from the end of the first Special Stage

STAGE FLASH
Date: 23.10.2009
Day: 1 Flash No: 1
Special Stage: HAFREN 1 Distance: 32.14 Km
Weather: Dry with some cloud
Road Conditions: Smooth but slippery in parts. Light rain overnight with lingering fog in places

3: Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen
"Seb is pushing really hard already. But it was not safe for me to go so fast straight away. If you hesitate you lose momentum and you go wide and there's no room for that."

1: Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena
"The grip was not so bad, quite OK. It was a good stage and I tried not to look at Mikko's line but take my own instead."

2: Dani Sordo/Marc Marti
"I tried to go fast, but sometimes it's slippery and other times it is not so bad."

4: Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Antilla
Emerged from stage with a broken front right driveshaft. "We lost a lot of time, and I'm not sure if we have a spare driveshaft in the car."

11: Petter Solberg/Phil Mills
"I made a couple of mistakes in there but the car feels good and its not a bad start for us. Very muddy, far more than the recce."

6: Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud
"The engine went onto three cylinders, that is the problem. It happened for almost the whole stage."

5: Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin
"Those times for the top two are unbelievable. We had a clean run but the engine feels a bit down on power. I was having to knock it down one or two gears on some sections just the keep the speed up."

12: Ogier/Julien Ingrassia
"Not good, but not bad; it's just hard to fight with the times that Seb and Mikko are doing at the moment."

8: Conrad Rautenbach/Daniel Barritt
"Not a bad start. A little bit of understeer in places but the car feels fine."

14: Mads Østberg/Jonas Andersson
"That was not good. It is stupid to go so slow. I tried some different things and they didn't work. The problem is me."

15: Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr
"That was good, but a bit slippy in some places. You have to be careful and not too confident."

16: Aaron Burkart/Michael Kolbach
"We are here! We are starting to get the feeling for the car and more trust in each corner. Very good fun but I have to stay on the road."

17: Steve Perez/Paul Spooner
"Not bad, very slippery in parts but we're settling into it."

31: Martin Prokop/Jan Tománek
"The stages are very slippery in there now, but we are taking it steady."

33: Toshi Arai/Glenn MacNeall
"That was good but we take it carefully. It is very fast in there in places and I try to be careful."

38: Gábor Mayer/Robert Tagai
"The steering servo is broken making it really hard to drive. That was hard work."

36: Egoi Eder Valdes Lopez/Daniel Lucas Coll
"That was brilliant, loved it."

48: Hermann Gassner Junior/Katharina Wuestenhagen
"The car seems down on power and I hope we can fix it at remote service."

61: Nico Thomas/Angelos Loizides
"That was our first ever stage in Wales, great fun!"

62: Jon Williams/George Gwynn
"We lost a turbo on shakedown yesterday and have had more problems this morning. The engine feels flat."

40: Dave Weston/Ieuan Thomas
We are down on power big time and it's not right. I think it is the turbo. I was overtaken by car 48 (Hermann Gassner Junior/Katharina Wuestenhagen) in stage."

66: Dennis Kuipers/Kees Hagman
"Really good and slippery, some places harder than others. Building up confidence."

49: Giorgio Bacco/Nicola Arena
"I broke the brakes!"

67: Mattias Therman/Janne Peräla
A good morning, very demanding and keeping my attention. A real wake up call for me."

68: Rene Kuipers/Erwin Mombaerts
"That was good with no problems."

70: Daniel Siguroarson/Andrew Sankey
"I lost a lost of time stuck behind Stephenson but that's life."

69: Peter Stephenson/Jim Burns
"That was our first time in the car and we are still getting used to it."

71: Eamonn Boland/MJ Morrissey
"The car seems fine, nothing to report really."

72: Wug Utting/Max Utting
"We have done no testing at all, and are just putting the hours in."

73: Egon Kaur/Erik Lepikson
"I took it cautiously but managed to catch the guys in front."

74: Trond Lyseng/Pål Iversen
"Little mistake in the last corner and slid off which cost me a few seconds but you have to try hard."

76: Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts
"To be honest I am not so happy with that stage. Our notes are too brave for the conditions today and as a result I cannot work to y maximum."

77: Giuseppe Dettori/Marco Corda
"It is hard but without the mud it would be perfect."

78: Paulo Nobre/Edu Paula
"Wow! That was amazing. This is our first time with the car and we need to make love together! Some places are really dangerous, but what a ride!"

79: Emre Yurdakul/Burak Erdener
"I have bent the steering a bit, we must have hit a rock. We should be OK..."

80: Burcu Cetinkaya/Çiçek Güney
"We are getting used to the car but all seems OK."

82: Davide Catania/Antonello Moncada
"We had a big problem with the brakes after that stage."

86: Majed Al Shamsi/Allan Harryman
"Everything is good although it is very wet and muddy."

85: Ahmed Al Mansoori/Killian Duffy
"My first time, and so far so good."

87: Tom Cave/Craig Parry
"That was OK, we're getting into the groove now."

88: Atte Alanen/Teemu Horkama
"The engine is too small for these stages and it is getting very rough in places."

89: Tom Haines/Dai Roberts
"That was good, the engine is running a bit too hot though and we're watching the temperatures, but we should be OK."

90: Sander Pärn/Ken Järveoja
"That was good, all systems go.

91: Siim Plangi/Marek Sarapuy
"All fine. NO problems."

93: Jean-Thierry Vacheron/Sylvain Trombert
"That was very good, with no problems. It hard to find the grip."

95: Kit Leigh/Tim Leigh
"We caught and passed a Citroen C2 (94: Kenneth Treacy/Martin Comerford) which is the first car I have passed in ages."

LAND ROVER CHALLENGE

201: Ewen Christie/Ross Cookman
"It is terrible in there, the stage is really not nice."

202: Steve Partridge/Adam Entwhistle
"We have lost all our electrics so have to shout at each other!"

204: George Morrison/Curtis McKertie
"Very hot work in there! A few big stones are appearing now."

205: Duncan Lilwall/Craig Teasdale
"My word it is very slippy out there. The first half of the stage was like glass and then there was a lot of ruts on some corners."

206: Alan Paramore/Gari Hazelby
"The rule in this team is the last Land Rover through pulls out anyone that has gone off!"

Sebastien Loeb has won Rallye Monte-Carlo for a sixth time following a dominant performance behind the wheel of the Citroen DS3 WRC he shares with Monegasque co-driver Daniel Elena.

Of the 74 starters who began Wales Rally GB in Llandudno on Thursday 10th November, 40 were classified at the end of the four-day,1860 kms rally which featured 23 timed special stages as it wound its way from the North coast to the ceremonial finish in Cardiff.

As this year's Wales Rally GB - the final and deciding round of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship - draws to a close, Business Minister, Edwina Hart has announced a funding package of £1.4 million for the 2012 event.

Useful Contacts

Welsh Government

World Rally Championship

Information on Cardiff

Conwy and Llandudno

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