Co-driver: Miikka Anttila

Before the actual competition we had some disturbing problems. In the recce we had five punctures, three even at the same time. We had to wait for two hours to get more tires which is why we were able to drive stages 2/5 and 3/6 only once but luckily we found an old note for those stages. In the recce the car that we used was a Jeep Liberty with street tires which caused the punctures, the rocks went straight through the tires. Our next problem occurred in the Shakedown. I stepped on the gas through a bump and the car went airborne. It landed on its nose to the ground. We stayed on the road, though, but our left chassis leg twisted a bit. It’s not very clever to try something like that in the Shakedown. Luckily it was easy to repair the car for the race.

The race itself started peacefully without any risks because our aim was only to get to the finish and have some points. On Friday I drove with a steady pace and we had no problems except for one with our launch control on stage seven. On Friday evening we were seventh. On Saturday my speed got better than it was on Friday but still we couldn’t reach number six, we kept on having the seventh place. On Sunday I was able to improve my speed and I drove the fifth fastest time on every stage. I was a bit closer to the sixth place but Stohl, who was number six, wasn’t probably driving at his best speed. In the finish we were number seven and got two world championship points.

7th

Car: Ford Focus WRC -06
Service Team: Stobart