Co-driver Miikka Anttila.

Friday 7.11.03

Two first special stages were the hardest and most slippery in whole rally. We started truly slowly and yet we saw two cars off road and that increased my insecurity about driving. Times were bad. Luckily we moved to drier special stages and then grip started to be better as well as times.

Saturday 8.11.03

My best drive ever. I made only couple of small mistakes. Once we hit a log and once we ran wide in corner.

Sunday 9.11.03

We could not improve our performance anymore, so we drove stages carefully to finish.

10th overall

Ford Focus WRC -01.
Service team M-Sport.
Rally engineer Esko Reiners

Co-driver Miikka Anttila.

Pressures were terrible after driving off the road on Isle of Man. My instructions were to bring car to finish line in one piece. On first day I drove carefully. On the beginning of second day antilag system started malfunctioning. It troubled us in small roads. On stage 16 (Moksi-Leustu) zylinder head gasket started leaking and engine was lacking of power. After the stage we had to get water from ditch with bottles. When we drove to next stage we got time penalty 1m 40s. We drove Vaheri without ALS. Before Sunday the leak was fixed but engine performance was still weak. We drove and enjoyed being as first car on road on last leg. Our placing was moderate, best newcomer.

14th overall

Ford Focus WRC -02
Service Team M-Sport
Rally engineer Esko Reiners

Co-driver Miikka Anttila.

My first World Rally Championship round on tarmac. The accident in Jim Clark was in my mind on first day and I drove really cautiously. On second day I got rid of my tension. My times were getting better even weather kept changing from wet to dry and back. I made only one mistake and I drove off. On third day at first service halt 10 s. we got time penalty, because we couldn´t decide what tyres to take soon enough. But day went well otherwise and I was in finish 17th overall. I lost 16th place by 6s due to time penalty.

17th overall

Ford Focus WRC -02
Service Team M-Sport
Rally engineer Esko Reiners

Co-driver Carl Williamson.

Car was flawless. I started slowly. On the first day engine stopped few times due to my error. In the morning on second day I was tired and I didn´t do very well. But afternoon was better. On third day I attacked and I rose from 11th position one step up in overall. I made history again.

10th overall

Ford Focus WRC -02
Service Team M-Sport
Rally engineer Esko Reiners