Gus Greensmith (2nd WRC 2 Pro) said:
“Aside from the two punctures and being caught in Kalle’s dust it’s been a good day – especially when things started to come together this afternoon and we got a stage win and two second fastest times.
“The pace of the car is really good and for me it has been fantastic all day. We didn’t want to risk too much this afternoon as we’d already lost quite a bit, but there’s still a lot I can find without doing too much more. So we’ll still fully confident.”
Gaurav Gill (restart tomorrow) said:
“We got off to a great start and even though we hadn’t quite perfected the set-up we were still managing to set some good times. That’s a really good sign for us as everything was brand new here – a brand-new rally, brand-new car, brand-new package.
“Unfortunately we had some bad luck on the second pass with some damage to the suspension. We were braking for a 90-left corner coming down the mountain and it looks like we picked up some bedrock which broke the steering.
“After that, we just had to park up and wait for the team to come and get us. It’s not the ideal way to start our campaign, but it’s been a positive day in terms of speed and I’m looking forward to getting back out on the stages tomorrow.”
FURTHER INFORMATION
A transmission issue meant ‘Pedro’ had to retire today, but he will restart the rally tomorrow.
