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| GNJ |
Patrik, congratulations on a fantastic victory on Rally Portugal on Sunday. Take us through the stages and give us your overall impression of the event. |
| PF |
"The rally was really quite rough. When we did the recce I thought there would be some problems on the second pass through some of the stages; and as it turned out, I was right.
"On Friday, we didn't have the best start really. Because we were first in our class, we had a three-minute interval to the car in front. The stages were so dusty however that it was very difficult to see properly and so hard to really push. On SS1, I caught the car in front about 6kms from the end, and running behind him for so long cost us a lot of time. After the stage we told the organizers about the problem and they were good, they gave us a four-minute interval for the next stage, so then we were able to really push hard again.
"After (the first group of) three stages I was forty seconds behind the leader. I thought at that point I really had to push to make up ground the second time through that group. Unfortunately, on the first stage I had a puncture, which we had to change in the stage. Then on the following stage I had another puncture, but as it was only 5 kilometres from the end we didn't lose so much time - maybe a minute.
"I was really lucky because the guy in the Super 2000 Peugeot was very fast in the beginning but he retired at the end of Friday with a broken gearbox.
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| Copyright © STI |
"When we started on Saturday, I was one minute forty seconds behind the leader. He wasn't as quick as us, and I thought that was my chance, maybe I could make up that gap - it worked. We had no problems throughout Saturday, and the roads were also a lot better than Friday's. By the end of the day I was back in the lead and so was able to take it a little easier on Sunday.
"The Peugeot guy was really quick (continuing under SupeRally), but he was over two minutes back so there was no problem there at all. I knew that if I didn't have any punctures or problems, he could never catch us. At the finish, I was one minute 30 seconds ahead of a Portuguese guy in a Mitsubishi Evo 9 and the Peugeot guy was 30 seconds behind him."
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| GNJ |
The stages were reported to be very rough and rocky, how did that affect your rally? |
| PF |
"In Sweden, from the start to the finish of a rally, we have to go flat-out all the way. But here, you have to think also. That was something new for me!" |
| GNJ |
Tell us your thoughts about the Portuguese stages. You've competed in Portugal once before, what are some characteristics? |
| PF |
"Yes, I was here last year as well, so I had one year's experience, and that helped me. The country is very beautiful, and some of the stages are actually quite close to what you find in Sweden. They're very fast and wide in places, and there are some jumps. However, some of the stages were very tricky with lots of up-down sections and very twisty in places." |
| GNJ |
What event are you planning to contest next time? |
| PF |
"I'm going to P-WRC Argentina next month. It's a fast event, but I have heard some of the stages can also be very rough and tricky - with many stones inside or outside (of corners) so it's easy to make a mistake. It's also a place to get punctures. That's really a problem with the Group N cars, getting punctures." |
| GNJ |
We'll be wishing you the best on Rally Argentina next month, would you like to give a message to your fans? |
| PF |
"Yes, thank you everyone for your support, we hope you will continue it, and we look forward to seeing you on the stages." |
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