Østberg places his Adapta Ford fourth on day one of Wales Rally GB

ELSEWHERE END OF DAY QUOTES, WALES RALLY GB, DAY 1

Mads Ostberg and Jonas Andersson, Ford Fiesta RS WRC

Photo by: Ford Motor Company

Mads Østberg, Adapta World Rally Team, Ford Fiesta RS WRC (4th)

“I think this afternoon was quite good to be honest. We didn’t manage to keep up the pace with Jari-Matti [Latvala] and Petter [Solberg] which was what we wanted, but we continued to take time from Mikko [Hirvonen].

“I think we did quite a good job on SS6. We knew from the first pass that we had some challenges with the pacenotes there and I tried to push really hard to lose as little time as possible. We had some interesting moments, but we got through OK with no dints on the car!

“I am quite pleased with fourth position and we are not too far off the guys in front, so I am for sure looking forward to tomorrow now.”

Martin Prokop, Ford Fiesta RS WRC (10th)

“This afternoon was pretty similar to the morning. Again we had no sixth gear so we are trying to do our best in the slow corners to keep the speed, but on the long straights we are losing quite a lot.

“But we didn’t lose as much time as I thought we would so that is a positive at least. We will work on getting the gearbox changed tonight and then tomorrow it will be all about trying our best to set some good times and make some improvements.”

Craig Breen, Ford Fiesta S2000 (14th)

”This afternoon has been good. We made some small changes in service and it for sure improved the car but in all honesty I was just driving round and not taking any risks at all.

“We still managed to make up a bit of a lead, so it is all looking pretty good at the minute!”

Yazeed Al Rajhi, Ford Fiesta RRC (16th)

“This afternoon has been OK. I really enjoy the stages but we had a problem with the suspension on the middle stage [SS5] which affected us on the last one [SS6] too.

“But we didn’t lose too much time and we made the right choice with the soft tyre so hopefully everything will be perfect for tomorrow.”

Edoardo Bresolin, Ford Fiesta RRC (19th)

”This afternoon was a lot like this morning. It was very difficult for me because still I don’t have the confidence with the car.

“But now we will look for a solution and try and get some good speed for tomorrow. We will look to change the suspension and a few other things so hopefully we can set some more competitive times over the next few days.”

Maciej Oleksowicz, Ford Fiesta S2000 (21st)

“This afternoon has been a lot better than this morning! The mechanics did a fantastic job in service. Even without the correct parts they managed to fix it so that the car drives straight.

“Unfortunately we got another left-rear puncture on the final stage [SS6]. I have no idea where we picked it up but there were a lot of sharp stones so maybe somewhere we cut too deep.”

Karl Kruuda, Ford Fiesta S2000

Kruuda went off the road on SS4. The team will assess the damage this evening and the Estonian will hopefully Rally 2 tomorrow.

Alastair Fisher, Ford Fiesta S2000

Fisher damaged the front suspension of his Fiesta on SS3 and will hopefully Rally 2 tomorrow.

Source: M-Sport - Elsewhere