Ford elsewhere teams driver quotes end of day 3 in Finland 05.08.2012: Mads Østberg, Adapta World Rally Team, Ford Fiesta RS WRC (5th) said: “The rally has

Mads Østberg, Adapta World Rally Team, Ford Fiesta RS WRC (5th) said: “The rally has been quite good. I am not so pleased with what we have done, but it was OK. We had too many small problems and haven’t been able to fight where we wanted to fight throughout the entire event.

“We stayed in touch with the top guys for a while, but we lost some time with the brake problems and after that it was a little bit disappointing. Then again we had the fight with Thierry [Neuville], but then he rolled, so there was a gap again. It wasn’t the way we hoped it would be. I am happy with the result, but I wanted to be closer to the top.”


Matti Rantanen, Ford Fiesta RS WRC (7th) said: “The rally was quite OK. Not what I was looking for, as I wanted to compete against Ott [Tänak] and Mads [Østberg], but I think I had too little experience because this was my first rally of the year! They are going so fast that it was really difficult [to match their speed]. I really enjoyed the last stages. But then on the first pass of Ouninpohja, the first four or five kilometres were really slippery and we went off a little. Apart from that, it was a really fun rally.”


Jari Ketomaa, Ford Fiesta RS WRC (8th) said: “This was for sure our best rally of the whole season so I am very satisfied with that. The team did a very good job. We had a two day test beforehand and I was very happy with the car’s set-up. Ouninpohja was a bit difficult, but we learnt something new and next time on this stage we will be better.”


Martin Prokop, Ford Fiesta RS WRC (9th) said: “The rally was not as good as we wanted it to be, but every stage was better and on Ouninpohja we had a really good feeling. We had a good fight with Jari [Ketomaa], but in the end we are losing 2.4 seconds to him, so I was a bit unhappy with that. But we spent some time in the car and got some good data and information for next year.

“The last stage was crazy. Ouninpohja is the hardest stage in the world and the speed there is something else! But we enjoyed driving it, and it was not so bad.”


Karl Kruuda, Ford Fiesta S2000 (12th) said: “I think the rally was great. We achieved a good result after a long period of not being in the car. OK, we could have been a little bit faster in the beginning, but at least we were on the road. If you go at high speeds there is a good chance that you won’t finish, so we are quite happy.

“Ouninpohja was the most difficult stage I have ever driven – it took all of my knowledge of driving. It is very hard to drive the stage if you have never experienced it before. But I think that with a couple of years experience, you can drive it with more speed and a lot more confidence.”


Sebastian Lindholm, Ford Fiesta RS WRC (14th) said: “It was a pleasure to do this rally once more. We were driving at a steady pace all the time and our main goal was to finish – it wouldn’t be very nice if you were to go off the road when you are just doing it for fun! “Ouninpohja is so incredible and so fast. For sure it is so difficult that it is so easy to make a mistake – as we saw this year – because the margins are so small. But I had a lot of fun and I really enjoyed my time here.”


Yazeed Al Rajhi, Ford Fiesta RRC (17th) said: “The rally was really nice and I finished in a good position with a good time. We had no mistakes and I really enjoyed my first time on this event. Ouninpohja was too difficult! You must keep a clean line and make no mistakes which is not easy on such a hard stage.”


Edoardo Bresolin, Ford Fiesta RRC (20th) said: “I am happy, but in the last stage [SS18] I felt a puncture in the front and I had to slow towards the end of the stage. But for me, the rally has been fantastic. M-Sport are a fantastic team and my Italian support is so good – I am very happy and have a big smile.”


Maciej Oleksowicz, Ford Fiesta RS WRC (23rd) said: “The rally for me was maybe not perfect, but for the team I think it was great because we got a lot of points and we are actually now leading the [S-WRC] championship. I am not so happy with my driving, because for me it was far too slow. I think there is still in my head some memories from New Zealand where we crashed three times. But I hope in GB it will be OK.”


Eskapekka Lappi, Ford Fiesta S2000 (25th) said: “The rally was very nice, very unbelievable actually. OK, we had a few problems but still it was very good and I got a lot of self confidence because I know now that we have the speed and I know where we are [compared to the other drivers on the event].”


Kari Hämäläinen, Ford Fiesta S2000 (28th) said: “The rally has been very nice and it is very good to be here. I enjoyed it a lot and hope to be here again next year. Ouninpohja was unbelievable, but a lot of fun!”



Anna Louise Rudd , photo M-Sport