BROTHER RALLY NEW ZEALAND

1st - Sébastien Loeb, Citroën Total World Rally Team1st - Daniel Elena, Citroën Total World Rally Team2nd - Mikko Hirvonen, Citroën Total World Rally Team2nd - Jarmo Lehtinen, Citroën Total World Rally Team3rd - Petter Solberg, Ford World Rally Team3rd - Chris Patterson, Ford World Rally TeamYves Matton, Team Principal, Citroën Total World Rally Team

Q:Sébastien, congratulations on your third win in a row this season. It seemed like a flawless performance this weekend, how do you feel it went?SL:We are very happy to be here. It has been a great battle over the weekend, especially with Mikko. It was really a good fight, over two long days, on some beautiful roads so I really enjoyed myself.

Q:A battle with your team-mate Mikko Hirvonen throughout Friday and Saturday, how much were you pushing to the limit on the stages?SL: Yes, we were pushing all the time and we were really flat out. The conditions were not easy so there was also the question of not doing too much - that’s my problem here. Every day has been tricky, it has been raining a lot, it looks sunny sometimes, and then suddenly a shower. So the most difficult time was when we had the hard tyres on - like yesterday afternoon, was really difficult.

Q:What is so enjoyable about competing on these stages?SL: It is a very beautiful rally. They are really nice flowing roads with some camber so you throw the car from one side to the other. It is really an incredible feeling to be here. You need to be flat out all the time so it’s really great.

Q:Tyre selection was crucial here, you always seemed to get it right - is that just experience?SL: It’s not easy to make the right tyre choice. We only had 10 soft so it was a bit difficult. And with rain at times - we just had to run with that.

Q:Daniel, what is the event like for the co-driver?DE: For the co-driver, it’s really fantastic. It’s really fast with good camber. The car is always moving and the feeling is fantastic. They are sensational roads. 

Q:Why do you like the event?DE: I love this country! The roads are very fast and and for me, it’s the best rally in the world because you enjoy it. The stages aren’t so dangerous.

Q:Mikko, second position overall after a good battle with Sébastien. We have seen great pace from you, are you happy with your performance?MH: I am a little frustrated. Coming back to New Zealand, this is a rally that I really wanted to win. We had a really great fight for the first two days and it’s just annoying because sometimes you can take half a second, maybe a second out of him then he comes back. I really enjoy these roads and I loved every minute of it.

Q:We saw you trading seconds with Sébastien across the stages yesterday, how difficult was it to even take a small amount of time out of him?MH: Yes, I’m really happy with that, especially after Greece. We had good pace and I did have an idea why I wasn’t so strong there. At least now we’re back on the pace and that is good news. It gives me confidence to go to Finland now.

Q:Were you frustrated when you knew you were not allowed to battle with Sébastien anymore?MH: Just imagine how many times we’ve been in that position, just holding our position. I was just making sure I got to the finish so it wasn’t too bad and in the end, if I could have done something differently, I would have saved my soft tyres so I could have had something for today. But that was my small mistake so it is nothing much I could do so I just try to make it to the finish and glad that it worked this time.

Q:How difficult were conditions out there today?MH: Pretty slippery in places. The surface today was a little bit different than yesterday. So it was easier today than it was yesterday.

Q:And how was the rally for you Jarmo?JL: It looks fantastic from the car as well. This, even as a Finn, I might say is the best rally in the world. It is pure enjoyment all the time. Sometimes it’s really really fast and is also so smooth and so flowing – it keeps its rhythm all the time. I just hope we come back. For me, this is the best rally in the world.

Q:Petter, let’s talk about Friday and that tyre choice in the morning. Hard compound tyres when the other boys took soft, how frustrated were you when you realised that it was the wrong choice?PS:Sometimes you can get it wrong. It destroyed the whole rally right from the start. But then we have to work mentally and get back to service, get on to different tyres and work slowly up. I must say we had a good rally as a team and we moved slowly forward. We didn’t do anything crazy or do anything over the top like in Greece, that half percent too much. I am happy with the performance of the team – they did a fantastic job. Jari-Matti’s [Latvala] luck and my luck is lacking small detail so I can’t wait for Rally Finland.

Q:After Friday morning and the loss of over a minute against the leaders did you calm down your pace or were you still pushing hard?PS:From my point-of-view, after that happened, you can’t catch that time back again – it’s basically impossible. You have to be in a different tyre situation to everybody else. So we couldn’t panic, and just go slowly forward. Okay we were pushing, but nothing crazy and we ended up on the podium so that is very important for the team here.

Q:Jari-Matti [Latvala] has stated that his drivers’ title hopes are now over; you are now in third position in the Championship how do you feel about your shot at it?PS:We are third, and okay Loeb is well in front, but we saw last year he retired two or three rallies in a row so it still can happen. Mikko is fast so hopefully it will be a very exciting second half of the year that we can really push on hard and give them a fight. But I’m more after a victory than maybe the Championship podium – I have enough of them – I want to win.

Q:You need to win to hunt down that drivers’ title now and the team are searching for wins – how is the morale at the team right now?PS:I think the team is working very hard – they are very positive. We have a fast car and it’s getting all the small details together. It will turn around – they [Citroën] have had it a little too easy lately so they may be a little too cocky so we will take it to them.

Q:Finland is up next – a good rally to kick-start the second half of the season for you.PS:Rally Finland is fantastic – same as here – that is very very good. But I think with the car and performance like it is we will be fast and we will try to get all the details right. I think we can do really well as a team, Jari is fast and one of us can win rallies – that’s the plan.

Q:Chris, how would you rate your Rally New Zealand this time around?CP:It was a bit up and down. We are happy with the result at the end of the day. Some of the stage times were very good and our performance was quite good so we are quite pleased. Obviously it is a long difficult rally with long road sections but we were quite happy – it was no problem.

Q:How tricky was it out there this weekend with the changing conditions?CP:This was the biggest battle – the changing weather conditions. One minute it was dry one minute it was wet – but the stages, regardless of the weather, had grip and are really really enjoyable so you just crack on and get on with it.

Q:How do you rate the event here in New Zealand?CP:For us, the co-drivers’, the stages are just so enjoyable – the sensation with the way they flow, cambers and jumps.

Q:Yves Matton, it’s another Citroën one-two, the third in a row now – it’s going exceptionally well for the team: drivers’ title wise, Manufacturers’ Championship wise. You must be feeling confident at the end of the first half of this season?YM:Yes for sure. We had a very good start to the season and everybody is doing a perfect job – drivers and team. The last three rallies we have not made any mistakes so that is very important. But is also very important to go to Finland with everybody in a good frame of mind – and to know both the drivers and team have the speed.

Q:The team order call came pretty late, were there any concerns they would push each other too hard?YM:Yes, always. It was not an easy situation for me yesterday afternoon, but I think the two drivers know the situation and could push hard without making any mistakes. In one way it is very stressful and another way with drivers like Seb and Mikko it is easy.

Q:Mikko, the next rally is your home event, you will want to win and turn the tables on Seb.MH:Obviously I would like to do that. It is always nice to go back home and compete. Now going there with a new team it will be a really big challenge and I have to say the last two years haven’t been so great. So hopefully I can turn it around and the rally will go well this year. Maybe at the start of the rally I will take it steady as nothing will happen on the first day then try to speed up a bit.

Q:Seb, any final thoughts?SL:For me it’s a perfect rally. The stages are wonderful so it is a pleasure to drive here. And as Daniel said – it’s a bit like Finland without the trees, so that’s always enjoyable.

Q:And a new challenge next weekend as you compete at the X-Games against your old foe Marcus Gronholm. How much are you looking forward to that?SL:It will be nice to fight against him again – it’s been a long time since I’ve competed with him. It is a new event and a new car with a lot of horsepower – so it will be fun for sure.

FIA SUPER 2000 WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Present:1st - Hayden Paddon1st - John Kennard

Q:Hayden, victory in the SWRC at your home event – how are you feeling?HP: Mixed emotions at the moment I guess. It’s great getting the result, and the points for our Championship are very good. But we have had a lot of dramas this weekend, a lot of problems. We had not too bad a day yesterday, but other than that there have been a lot of things that have held us back and this is the one rally we really wanted to show some speed on and we were unable to do that. Nevertheless it’s great for the Championship and we have to move on from this.

Q:We will come on to the problems, but come Friday you were the only SWRC competitor still effectively in the event. How did you feel at that point?HP:I guess that takes some of the fun aspect out of it when you don’t really have the competition. It does get a little demoralising when you get to the end of stages and all you can look at are WRC times in front of you. It would have been nice to have had some more competition. Obviously P-G [Andersson] was going fast but he had a lot of problems. No doubt in Finland it will be all on again.

Q:It was a good battle on Friday morning – P-G was ahead of you before he went off.HP: Yes he was having a good run in the morning. We weren’t too concerned because those stages have never really favoured me in the past. Saturday was always going to be the day for a good push. We were setting it up for Saturday but as it turned out with the problems it might have been very difficult if he was still going.

Q:Let’s look at your problems – some gearbox issues and it was a real struggle to get back here to service.HP: Friday in the afternoon on Whaanga Coast we lost second gear which is one of the most crucial gears in the later part of that stage, and we lost sixth gear on the Te Akau stages which is again one of the most common gears in those two stages. That cost us a bit of time and the clutch made the touring back to Auckland a special stage on its own. We could have pulled out and super rallied and not damaged the gearbox any more before the last two stages, but we wanted to be first kiwi as well so we battled through and got through to the end of the day.

Q:And more dramas today – tell us what happened?HP: Yes we had rear suspension failure. We went to change our suspension last night to find and learn a few more things about the car but unfortunately some faulty suspension was fitted to the car so straight away so it wasn’t working and basically like a pendulum. This afternoon I got a little bit carried away and John had to tell me off for the first time in a long time when we smacked the bank and knocked the tyre off its wheels so we had to stop and change.

Q:John you had to tell him off?JK: Yes it was the first time in ages. I had to tell him to settle down.

Q:Why were you getting so ragged so late on?HP: Once we fixed the shocks in service we went out with different springs and different damper settings and it was the first corner of the first stage with these changes. I took the corner the same as I did last time but the car didn’t react as I thought it was going to and stepped out of line and in to the bank.

Q:I know it is good to win the SWRC but what does it mean to be the leading kiwi as well?HP: It is certainly a great honour and something the kiwis are always battling for every year. Okay we had the advantage of better machinery than our fellow kiwis this year. Nevertheless it has been one of those rallies that has been really hard especially day one that was very long. You had to get to the end and we did that, not how we wanted to – luckily by just enough.

Q:John how are you feeling about the win here in New Zealand?JK: It is fantastic to win at home. It is the place to win really. It is good for the profile here. Where we are with budget now the main thing for Hayden is to keep the profile up at all times so to do this helps big time.

Q:So does this help winning on the world stage here?JK: We still struggle to raise the profile outside of New Zealand so the higher we can get it in New Zealand and the more support we can get here - and we have some fantastic support and again huge amounts of support before the rally.

Q:By Hayden’s own description, some dramas out there this weekend but hopefully it was enjoyable John?JK: Yes for sure, yesterday was fantastic. To be on those stages I had only done in a Group N car before, in an S2000 car was incredible. For the first time we were down to less than a second per kilometre to the WRC cars so when you look at the differences in the cars and you know where you are losing it up hills in the S2000 cars it will be really good for the future.

Q:Hayden – how do you feel about the Championship and where you stand in the SWRC?HP: It is certainly looking very promising but it is early days. We are only three rounds in of seven and a long way to go. Finland will be a pivotal part of the Championship with hopefully everybody there. At this stage we have to play it rally by rally.

FIA PRODUCTION CAR WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

Present: 1st - Marcos Ligato1st - Ruben Garcia

Q:Now turning to Marcos Ligato and Ruben Garcia – congratulations Marcos it is the first win for you in PWRC this year – how are you feeling about it?ML: We are very happy. It was an important victory for us. We were fighting for this moment. New Zealand is always a really nice rally. Last time we were here was 2005 we finished third and today we win. It is very important fighting in the Group N for the World Championship. The next one is Germany and we must make some tests but everything is okay now.

Q:In contrast to Hayden you did not seem to have any problems. Were there any moments out there?ML: No not at all. All the weekend we were fast. The first day after the difference we see with everyone we knew we could have normal speed and no risk and the car was perfect all the time. So, no problems. We had enough tyres for today – we had soft tyres for the start of today so everything was perfect.

Q:And you led the rally right from the start. How are you feeling about the Championship because Benito Guerra has had a run of wins. He is going to be hard to beat?ML: Yes of course. We are four of the cars that could win. Everybody wants to win the next event because there are only three events missing and Benito is in front of the Championship, but anyone can win it.

Q:Ruben, how much have you enjoyed the weekend here in New Zealand?RG: I enjoy too much but for the stage was running very nice – all the time here in New Zealand the stage was running very nice. But it is not easy for the Group N car in the first leg or second leg – too much kilometres with one remote service. It is difficult for the cars and the crews. You must arrive to the service with the car in perfect condition. If you have a problem maybe you retire from the rally. I enjoy the rally, the team and Marcos driving, and I hope we can win the next rally in Germany.

Q:You have been very lucky because remote service for you must have been easy with absolutely no problems at all?RG: Yes but the team make a big job. We make a test on Sunday before the rally and then the team make a new car for the rally and the result is for this work.