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

Co-driver: Miikka Anttila

We were able to test the car about 70 kilometres before the rally and it was much better than in Mexico. The first stage was driven on tarmac at a stadium on Thursday evening. Maybe I had too much tension in my body because I drove off the track immediately in the first corner and the motor died but I was lucky because the car was not damaged. It was really embarrassing to drive off in front of thousands of spectators.

On Friday morning all of that was forgotten and we started in a good mood. On stage one the car felt good and my driving went well, but unfortunately there were some problems in the screen on the dashboard and I couldn’t see what gear I was driving on. I drove too fast to a tight uphill corner having a wrong gear on and the car died again. It took me about 30 seconds to get the car moving because I couldn’t see which gear I had and the launch control was locked on, too. Otherwise Friday was good, almost perfect, because I was able to drive the third fastest stage time three times and now my position in the overall was sixth.

On Saturday morning it started to rain right after we had made our tire choice and we had to leave for the stages with uncut tires. So the slippery conditions surprised us right away on the first stage of the morning four kilometres after the start. There was so much mud on the road that the braking went too long and I drove straight onto a field, but luckily I was able to get back to the road. In the afternoon the conditions got drier and again I made wrong tire choice. Now I took too soft tires and didn’t get good stage times but I was able to keep my sixth position though. On Sunday my aim was to drive steadily to the finish because the fifth place was too far away. The driving went better than on Saturday and all the other stages except the Super special stage in front of the spectators went well. On the Super special I stopped the car again in the first corner and lost 15 valuable seconds. I finished the rally sixth and got three world championship points, but unfortunately in the re-check of the cars they found out that all the –06 model Fords had too thin rear side classes and we all got time penalty of five minutes which made us drop in the positions. Finally we were number eight but got one world championship point though.

8th

Car: Ford Focus WRC -06
Service Team: Stobart

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

Co-driver: Miikka Anttila

Rally Norway was new to everyone and the stages seemed to be challenging. I was the third fastest on stage 1 and after two stages when we came to the service I was in fourth position. We had some minor problems with the power steering on stage 1 which was why we decided to change it. It took longer than we thought and our service time limit was exceeded by six minutes. We had to adjust the power steering again on the road section before the next stage which we missed by three minutes. All that cost us a time penalty of one minute and 30 seconds. The driving on Friday went really well, though. On stage 5 I was even able to drive my first fastest time with a WRC car! At the end of Friday we were in tenth position. On Saturday it was snowing heavily the whole day which made the roads very snowy. There was also some fog so that the visibility was bad, too. Due to the bad weather the drivers made mistakes because it was more difficult to drive there than it was in this year’s Monte Carlo Rally. We weren’t able to drive especially good times on the next stages but we drove without any bigger mistakes and finally we found ourselves in fifth position. My only goal for Sunday was to come to the finish because there was no one I could really compete with anymore. Number four was one minute ahead of me and number six was one minute behind me. My times on Sunday were pretty good and the only minor mistake I made was on the last stage where one crossing went too long. Being fifth in the race gave us four world championship points which made me really satisfied. Without the problems we had on Friday I would have been competing for the third position, but it’s no use worrying about that because there will be other rallies and other opportunities to improve the results.

5th

Car: Ford Focus WRC -06
Service Team: Stobart

Co-driver: Miikka Anttila

Before the rally I was able to test drive the car for about 50 kilometres and now it was adjusted for racing. Right at the beginning, on the first stage already, my pace was correct, but I made a few minor mistakes which slowed me down so that I couldn’t do the times that would have been within the five fastest ones. On stage 6 I was the fourth and it started to seem that I had won the obstacles. But then again on the next stage I span in a very slow right and the car stayed on in the middle of the road between the sides of the road. It took me about 40 minutes to turn the car on that narrow road and I went down in the results, I was number ten now. My goal for Saturday was to try and drive without mistakes and to drive some good times. Finally in the afternoon I managed to get better times and my self-confidence got better. Now I was number nine with nine seconds gap to Gardemeister and ten seconds gap to Stohl. On Sunday there would still be some competition with those two. Unfortunately my Sunday didn’t start well. On the first stage of the morning after I had driven about ten kilometres the oil pressure started to drop and we had to stop the car after calling the service. I went out, lifted the hood and saw oil all over. The breathing pipe of the engine had frozen up because of the very cold weather. It formed pressure in the engine and made the oil leak out. The retirement was inevitable, but luckily we had stopped the car on time and didn’t break down the engine.

retirement

Car: Ford Focus WRC -06
Service Team: Stobart

Co-driver: Miikka Anttila

It felt good to start the new season in Monte Carlo. Just before the rally we were informed that we can drive a WRC Ford in at least 12 world championships rounds. The competition itself started poorly. I was totally lost with my driving. On Thursday night when the rally started we had to drive the first stages in the dark and the fastest cars were way ahead of me. That was mostly because I was not able to test the car before the race and this was my first rally on tarmac with a Ford Focus 06 WRC. On Friday morning my driving got better and in the afternoon we were able to drive a few good stage times. We had some problems with our launch control on the last two stages on Friday, though. I changed a few adjustments which helped and on Saturday the driving felt pretty good. We even drove the third best stage times twice. Unfortunately Saturday ended badly, I hit a stone wall on the last stage and even though we were able to continue we had to retire because our roll cage got twisted. Only two and a half kilometres before the finish we had to let the eighth position go and retire. There is still much to learn!

retirement SS14

Car: Ford Focus WRC -06
Service Team: Stobart