I would never ever claim Rally Japan to be easy. But - in the end of the day- it was not the trickiest rally in the world. It¹s a very challengingrally. The roads are very narrow. But, any way, it was great fun to racethere.
We just went off. Obviously it was my fault. But I just could not help it.There was a simple misunderstanding with the pace notes in that corner. Wecame just a little bit too fast there and then it was sayonara to thisrally.
It was quite close to get the car back in control, but it did not work out.The car slipped smoothly to the bushes. It was a shame there was not asingle soul hanging around in that area. So the car got stuck there and wecould not get it back to the road anymore.
Well, that was the second DNF of the season. It¹s always annoying to loosesome valuable miles in this way. Obviously, it hurts always painfully, ifyou make even a small error with the WRC car, while with F1 racing car youjust go off and most often come back very quickly to the circuit.
My first visit to Sapporo and Hokkaido island was more or less likeexpected. While there were no tests after German rally on tarmac, to begin asuch different rally was not that simple.
We started in a stadium and then straight away we continued to gravel onvery soft and slippery roads.
The first day we had some technical issues with car in the beginning. Ittook some time to find the solutions to these problems and the rightsettings. But finally it worked out well and the speed was there to fightthe TOP-10 positions.
Our target was to finish the rally. Well, we didn¹t. At least it was good tobe there until Sunday morning and collect plenty of new experience from thiskind of special rally. When you are in this business of rally, you have toget used to such a difficult things, too. That is the name of the game whiledigging deep in this learning curve of WRC rally sports.
The next rally is France. That is a new rally for everybody. It¹s a tarmacrally and, of course, it feels more familiar for me compared to the newgravel challenges like Japan, for example. Obviously, we will have a testto get the better grips with it, too.
It¹s going to be my forth tarmac rally with Red Bull Citroen C3 WRC. Thetarget is the same: to finish the rally without any major mistakes.
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