Sébastien Ogier
“Although I didn’t manage to score the result I was personally hoping for in Chile, I’m pleased we managed to make a perfect weekend as a team and come back much closer in the manufacturers’ championship, which was always my main target for this season. So we are really motivated now to push for the last two events on asphalt. In Central Europe, it’s nice to have another home rally for me, close to where I live now in Germany, and with a lot of fans watching the stages. From last year, we know that the conditions can be really challenging with very narrow roads, some quite dirty sections and very low grip. So we’ve been working to have a car that can give us maximum confidence for these tricky stages.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“I’m looking forward to being back in the car and driving on a totally different surface for the last two rallies of the year. I really like driving on asphalt, and I hope to find a good feeling and perform well. Central European Rally is a big challenge for everybody with a lot of surface changes and dirt on the road. Last year, the Friday on Czech roads was especially difficult with rain and a lot of cuts. With that experience it should be easier to return this year but there will still be many new stages, so we need to focus on making good pacenotes and communicating well with our route note crew. I will try to be patient, be there to score points for the team and if everything goes well, it will be easier for me to push at Rally Japan.”
Sami Pajari
“This will be my first time with the Rally1 car on asphalt and I’m sure it will be a big challenge. I did the rally in WRC2 last year and it was really tricky in places, with some more enjoyable parts as well. The stages are a bit different in each of the three countries, and at this time of year the weather can be quite unpredictable. But at the moment for myself it’s all about facing these challenges and learning from them. I think we did quite a solid job in Finland and Chile and I’m sure it will be a similar story on this rally too: when we’re feeling good, we can do some nice times, and if there’s more risk or tricky conditions, step back a little bit to gain the experience and not rush too much.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Adrien Fourmaux
“Central European Rally takes us back to Tarmac rallying for the first time in nearly six months! It’s nice to be driving on Tarmac again, and we had a good day’s testing last week. We know at this time of year the weather can be very wet and make the rally very complicated, with a lot of mud getting brought up from the cuts on the road.
“Last year Alex and I finished first in the RC2 class, which was a really good result. We want to do our best this year on this event to get back on the podium, so we’re going to do our best. We’re really pleased to be back in Europe but also back on Tarmac!”
Grégoire Munster
“Central Europe was the first Tarmac event I did in a Rally1 car, and the roads and weather conditions in this part of Europe suit me very well. So, I’m looking forward to this event! We had a really good pre-event test last week near the border of the Czech Republic and Austria, and it went very well in tricky conditions – so we are well prepared for the event!
“I like that we cross three countries during this event, it makes the roads very diverse and this way we can see so many fans from different areas of Europe, which is really nice.”
Jourdan Serderidis
“After a good result on Acropolis rally, I wanted to conclude the 2024 season with M-Sport and my teammates Adrien, Alex, Greg and Louis with a super nice challenge, and this Tarmac event in Central Europe definitely represents that! I hope to achieve a similar result to our Acropolis finish and have as much fun as we did there.”
WRC2 Category
Oliver Solberg
“I’m not going to lie to you,” said the 23-year-old. “That was a difficult one, probably one of the toughest of my career. We had really done everything we could, we were leading, but still it wasn’t enough to win it on the day. We might still win, depending what our rivals do in CER and Japan, but I think we deserved to do it in our own way.
“Nothing we can do about that now, we stay positive, and we look forwards. The best way to get over the disappointment of the last round is to get straight back in the car and back on the pace – that’s what we’re going to do in CER.
“I would like to say we’re going to be pushing for another win and that’s definitely the objective, but this one is tricky. We haven’t driven on Tarmac for so long – Monte Carlo in January was the last time. And we didn’t compete in CER last year, so we don’t know so much about the conditions. Let’s see what we can do.
“We know there will be a lot of fans out there and me and Elliott [Edmondson, co-driver] love to see them all – and, of course, this is kind of a home round for Škoda, so we want to show how cool and quick the Fabia RS Rally2 really is!”
William Creighton
“This is a completely new rally for me, with 90% new stages for everyone else this year too. It looked like such a tricky rally last year and I am sure it will be similar this time, even if the weather is good. The Fiesta Rally2 will work well in these conditions, we’ve had some recent experience on Tarmac in the car, and I will be aiming for a strong rally to finish our WRC2 season with M-Sport on a high.”
Summary
Although Elfyn has already conceded this season’s championship, the Welshman who is fourth in the standings remains within 46 points of championship leader Thierry. Now it would take a major upset for Thierry to lose his lead, but this is the world rally championship, and nothing is decided as yet.
The closest challengers to the Belgians are their teammates Ott and Martin who are just 29 points behind. A win for the 2019 world champions would keep them in the fight heading to Japan in November.
Also still in the fight is Seb and Vincent, 41 points from the leaders. We know that the former champion is quick on sealed surfaces. Let’s see what they can do this weekend!
Enjoy!
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Publish date : 2024-10-16 14:52:00
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