Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
The Super Special at a football stadium in Buenos Aires started the rally. From there it was about 700 km to Carlos Paz which was the actual centre of the rally. The racing cars were taken there by trucks but us drivers and other personnel were taken by planes. The day was more or less just waiting and finally when we were able to drive the Super Special at the stadium it was a bit of a disappointment because the stadium was half empty. On Thursday night after the Super Special we were supposed to travel back to Carlos Paz but unfortunately it was storming heavily and our planes were badly delayed. Most of the drivers managed to get to Carlos Paz early Friday morning, the rest as late as in the afternoon which is why they had to cancel the first rallying day. The only stage driven that day was the Super Special in Cordoba. On Saturday the rally really started. This was the world championship rally we had the least experience of and we started the race with apt minds. Our stage times varied from the fifth fastest to the tenth fastest before the afternoon’s service. After the service we went to the fast sections, the driving started to feel good and our times got better. We rose in the positions to the fourth place because some of the competitors experienced problems. The stage of Santa Rosa will stay in my mind because of the jumps – it felt like at home in Jyvaskyla (Neste Oil Rally). The first stage on Sunday morning was the most difficult one in the whole rally and the thick fog didn’t make it any easier nor did Henning Solberg who was breathing on our necks only ten seconds behind us. The stage went well though and I was able to beat Henning so much that now I didn’t have to focus on anything else but on driving the rest of the rally sensibly. This tactics brought us to the finish in fourth place, which equals my best world championship result so far. However, I became aware of that the first three drive unbelievably fast.
4th
Car: Ford Focus WRC -06
Service Team: Stobart