This rally is one of my favourites and I started the race having the podium in mind. The first stage of the rally went perfectly. I drove the fastest time by seven seconds. The next one started well but unfortunately half way through the stage I had too fast notes and I took a right corner too fast hitting the bank in the outer corner. The car stayed on the road, though, but the rear tyre slipped off the rim and I had to drive about 15 kilometers with an empty tyre losing one minute forty seconds. After that I started to attack hard and by the end of Friday evening we were seventh Sebastien Loeb having the lead. On Saturday I was car number seven on the road which meant cleaner roads for me than for the leading drivers. I drove as fast as I could, sometimes 110%. I did the fastest time on every six stages of the day and ended up second with Mikko having the exact same time as him. We were about 30 seconds behind Sebastien. On Sunday Mikko and I got to try and catch Sebastien. We had an agreement that whichever of us two was the fastest on morning’s first two stages he was the one who could maintain that position and the other one was to be in the third position. I was able to catch Loeb five seconds on the first stage in the morning but Mikko was even faster than me by five seconds. On the second stage Mikko and I drove at almost the same pace but Loeb was again faster than us. It started to be obvious that we couldn’t reach Loeb and because I lost the battle for Mikko he was to be second and I continued as the third. Now it was just to bring myself and the car safely to the finish. My driving was relaxed, I was even able to drive the fastest time on two stages, Loeb made no mistakes, and so, he won. Mikko was the second and I was the third. This was Loeb’s 40 th victory. I was more than happy with my driving because after the puncture on Friday I was able to rise to the third place. But … I am a bit annoyed because I couldn’t get the best out of me at Sunday morning’s crucial moment…
