Team bosses reflect - Leg 1 in Argentina

In the Carlos Paz service park tonight, Jost Capito (pictured, Volkswagen Motorsport), Yves Matton (Citroen Total Abu Dhabi) and Malcolm Wilson (Qatar M-Sport) spoke about the opening leg’s action:

Q: Jost, it’s been a fantastic day for Sebastien Ogier. He is competing against the best this weekend as Sebastien Loeb is back. What have you thought of his performance?

JC: It was a great performance and a great battle and I think it’s fantastic that Loeb is back here for a good fight all weekend. I think it will be very exciting tomorrow and the day after and I think the rally is by far not done.

Q: Sebastien Ogier has a good lead in the drivers’ championship and doesn’t have to win here, but he wants to win. How much pressure is he feeling from himself and the team?

JC: He is not feeling pressure from the team because he knows he has to drive for the championship and this is the highest target. On the other hand, we also told him that if he wants to go for it, then he should go for it because we want a good sport and a good fight. He doesn’t have to rein back, but he is not stupid and he knows what he is doing.

Q: Yves, Sebastien Loeb is back and in second at the end of the day. How good is it to have him back as part of the team?

YM: It is good to see him here. Argentina is a very important market for us and everybody enjoys seeing him here. He is second but also Mikko is back, because he is only two seconds from Sebastien Loeb and 18 seconds from Sebastien Ogier. The rally in Portugal was not so easy for him and I’m very happy that he is back and that we have two drivers who are close to Seb Ogier.

Q: Are there any kind of team instructions at this point considering that Loeb and Hirvonen are so close and putting pressure on Ogier. What is your instruction to them?

YM: To have two cars in the first two places!

Q: Dani Sordo has had a difficult day out there. Can you tell us what happened to Dani this morning and what caused the accident?

YM: It was a wrong pace note from Carlos. He missed one of two notes that were very close and they entered a corner which Dani thought was flat out. But it wasn’t the case, he went off and rolled.

Q: Malcolm, for the moment you have no drivers in a podium position. It has been a difficult day, especially for Mads Ostberg, but we have seen good pace from him and Evgeny Novikov. How would you sum up the day?

MW: It has been anything but good. With Mads we were struggling a bit this morning but we made some changes before he left service and the pace was really good. But unfortunately there was a massive rock on the line and he damaged the suspension Apart from that it has been OK. Evgeny has got faster as the day has gone on. We had a poor start but it is getting better.

Q: Hopefully we will see Mads back tomorrow. What’s the plan for the third day here?

MW: There is no question Mads will be back. He managed to repair the car himself in the stage and drove the car back here. All the cars will be out running, hopefully at 100 per cent tomorrow.