Welcome to the post event FIA press conference.

Q:
Seb, congratulations on your third consecutive win in Cyprus, the 28th of your career. Now you have a 35-point lead over Marcus; will you be aiming to wrap up the Championship in Turkey? Going back to the event, when you saw Marcus’s times on the first day, did you think you could challenge for the win? You took the lead on the second run through the long stage; was it down to your tyre choice? Which tyres did you choose and what sort of advantage did they give you?

SL:
We will have to finish fourth to win the title in Turkey. This will be possible. For that we have to do the rally first and see what happens. After the first loop I realised it would again be a close fight. It was like this, very close, all weekend. My tyre choice was a good one. We were flghting, Marcus was really fighting. In the first long stage there was just 0.1 seconds between us. Something changed and I am sure that was the tyres. I used the wide tyre. The second pass was a wide tyre. I think we had more grip with this.

Q:
Were you surprised when you saw your time on SS15? Did you think at that point that you would win the rally?

DE:
No. Because with Marcus behind it is never won until the finish. In Japan we started the last day with 25 seconds and then it was just eight seconds. He can catch you. With Marcus, he is a shark, the rally is never over until the finish.

Q:
How did you see that crucial SS15? Do you think you made the wrong tyre choice, or was Sébastien simply quicker than you? Was there anything about the stage that you did not like? At that point did you think the fight with him was over? On the stage before you made a mistake and spun: what happened? Did that affect your concentration?

MG:
It was a cleaner stage than I was expecting and we were clearly sliding here and there and the confidence was not so good. Then I lost a lot on the long one. Still I wanted to push a bit to keep him awake, hoping for something. The long stage was not a good one for me.

Q:
What about you Timo? Did you think that you stood a chance of putting pressure on Seb today, or were you just driving safely to get the points for second place? How difficult was the tyre choice here?

TR:
I understood yesterday we could not do what we did in Japan, because the stages are a different nature and if you try and drive completely crazy, like Marcus did in Japan, the road is not wide enough. Of course we were hoping to challenge on the first few stages, but the first splits showed we were not on that pace and we settled for second and kept the same pace to the end.

Q:
Congratulations on yet another podium Mikko. You are a regular visitor here now. Were you a little bit disappointed not to be closer to the pace of Sébastien and Marcus, who seemed to be in a league of their own here? Did you enjoy the rally? What was your fight with Manfred Stohl like?

MH:
Yes I was disappointed, but it has always been a difficult rally for me and it is difficult to find the right rhythm for these stages. I made a small mistake with the car set-up before the rally. It was my mistake and a good lesson. I am sure we will be more competitive in the future. We had a fight on Friday and Saturday afternoon with Manfred. I don’t really enjoy driving on these stages. In the end I got some distance on him and today was much easier.

Q:
How difficult were the conditions here this year? How tricky was it coping with the constant heat? Is this the most difficult rally of the year for co-drivers?

JL:
Yes. it is the most difficult, not just the number of corners but the nature of the stages. There is no rhythm in your reading and it makes it really hard to concentrate.

Q:
Congratulations Marc, a very successul event for Seb, but it was a bit less successful for Dani. We all saw the accident in SS20 on television; can you explain exactly why it happened when the crews were told beforehand the stage would be treated as cancelled and not to drive at racing speeds? This means that the gap to Ford in the Manufacturers’ Championship comes down; are you worried? What is your plan for the four events that remain?

MvD:
I don’t know why Dani’s accident happened; it’s clearly a stupid mistake. There was no reason to do that, especially when the stage had been cancelled. He is a young driver, 23 years-old, and I hope this can help him for the future. Things like that are not acceptable at this level. We expect on rallies like this to get some more points. We know that the Xsara is a very strong car and we wanted more points. Okay it is never finished. We are still leading. Seven points is not a big gap, but we will see after Turkey. It is difficult, when we started the season the Manufacturers’ Championship was not our objective. After every event we saw it was possible. We must work hard all together to give some confidence back to Dani. We will see. We know that Seb and Daniel are very strong. I am very proud of them.

Q:
What did you think of the event? Cyprus is leaving the World Championship next year; will you miss it? Do you think you are well-prepared for the Rally of Turkey now? How good is the Citroen Xsara in these sorts of rough conditions?

SL:
This year the roads for me were much better and less rough. The organisation made a good job. Also the organisation was not perfect. A lot of little things that the co-drivers know better than me. We have some new rallies coming in. I think they could be interesting. Everything is going well with our car. Okay, I am confident and know it will be a fight.

Q:
Of your three wins in Cyprus, which one is your favourite and what memories do you have of this rally?

DE:
Cyprus this year. The first year was not really a victory. The first year was Marcus’s victory on the stages. Last year there was no battle. I finish with more than four minutes’ lead. And this year we had a fight with Marcus and Timo. When you finish one stage of 30 km and you have a tiny advantage, it was fantastic.

Q:
As we were saying with Marc Van Dalen earlier, BP-Ford is now getting very close to Kronos Citroen in the Manufacturers’ Championship, What can you do to help them win it? Does this affect your tactics for the rest of the year and will you be concentrating more on scoring points than aiming for wins? Do you think that Ford can do it? There was a new stage in Limassol today. What did you think of it?

MG:
We need to win rallies and we have to finish as well. If you are thinking too much about this you cannot be fast.  The down town stage was a little bit dangerous. The people were in bad places in the braking and the tarmac here is so slippery. It could have been a disaster. Better to do it like we did.

Q:
After this hot and rough event, do you feel optimistic about your chances in Turkey, which is run in similar conditions? Do you think you can have revenge on Sebastien there? Is the car well-suited to these conditions?

TR:
I am hoping that we could challenge a bit more of his speed. I’m confident. Turkish roads are a little bit wider, faster and more flowing than here. I hope we can beat him. Maybe Sébastien is driving slow on the first run through stages and faster on the second ones.

Q:
What are your thoughts about the Manufacturers’ Championship Mikko? It looks very close now. What do you think your chances are now of finishing on the podium on all the other rallies?

MH:
This is what we are looking for at the moment. We have a good chance of being on the podium. Like always it will be a good fight, but we can do it again. Hopefully it will not be too long before I challenge Marcus and Seb. Some rallies I am very close and on other rallies we still have work to do. This is the last step. We are getting closer and getting consistent finishes.

Q:
How do you think Mikko has improved as a driver over the last few months? His consistency seems very impressive indeed?

JL:
I think you can see the result of his improvement. He is much more consistent. The safe speed is higher. We cannot match Seb and Marcus at the moment, but we can match everyone else.

Q:
An exciting time now. How are you feeling?

MvD:
If you asked me at the start of the season, if you would have eight victories from 12 events, I would tell you you were crazy. It is fantastic. There is a real team spirit. We are so motivated. Our team’s challenge this year is so important for me. We are very strong.

FIA PRODUCTION CAR WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

1st - Fumio Nutahara
1st - Daniel Barritt

Q:
Fumio. Congratulations. When Nasser was leading on the opening day, did you think you would be able to catch and pass him? Were you surprised when Toshi Arai went off on the first day.

FN:
I look at the long stage and saw Nasser off the road. I think keep your concentration, but it was very difficult. Toshi went off. He is a very fast driver. But I think Cyprus Rally was very difficult and we needed to take no punctures and no risks to win.

Q:
Daniel, congratulations. How did the Championship situation affect your tactics here? Were you driving flat out to chase a win, or was it important to secure a consistent points finish?

DB:
We needed to try and score as many points as possible to try and catch Nasser and reach the finish without problems. Over the three days that was the plan and it came off. 

Q:
The conditions here were very rough; how did your Mitsubishi and Yokohama tyres cope with all the rocks? Did you have any problems?

FN:
This rally Mitsubishi was very strong. No troubles for us. Yokohama tyres were fantastic, no puncture, just one side cut. Tyres no problem for us.

Q:
How tricky was it to keep the right rhythm here with the notes and the car? Was this one of the most difficult events that you have done?

FN:
It was quite difficult. After Nasser had his accident we slowed our pace down. It all went okay. This is probably the most difficult weekend I have had in rallying – from the recce to the finish today.

Q:
What is your Championship situation like now and what is your next rally? Are you feeling confident?

FN:
We have two rallies in Australia and New Zealand. Australia is maximum attack. Nasser goes to New Zealand. Maybe we have a good battle. I feel confident now. 

Q:
What do you think of the Championship format? There were only 10 registered runners here; would you like to see all your competitors here on all the events?

DB:
Difficult one. The competition is the same on every rally. This was a good one from our point of view, but it would be better if there were 15 on each rally. There are pluses and minuses for everyone.