Present:
1st - Kris Meeke, Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
1st - Paul Nagle, Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
2nd - Mads Østberg, Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
2nd - Jonas Andersson, Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
3rd - Elfyn Evans, M-Sport World Rally Team
3rd - Daniel Barritt, M-Sport World Rally Team
Yves Matton, Team Principal, Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

Q:
Kris, a WRC win is special for any driver, but when it is the first it is exceptionally special. There hasn’t been a British driver on the podium for a long time. How are you feeling at the end of this challenging event? And how are you feeling with your first-ever WRC win?
KM:
Yes, it has been exceptionally good. I had some difficulties this year to get to the finish line without mistakes. The speed has been good but I definitely needed to improve. When I came to Argentina I wanted to get some points. From the first moment I felt right, especially from the first stage in Ascochinga. A few guys had problems and we managed to take 30 seconds and from then on it worked. It is an incredibly special feeling. I will take a while thinking.

Q:
Did you feel a kind of relief when you crossed the finish line?
KM:
In the stage I was completed focused, I was fine. There was no drama. I passed the yellow board and I could see the red boards and when I got to the finish line the people started to ask questions and I started to choke up a bit because it has been a long road. At a time I thought that it was the end of my career. I couldn’t see any opportunities and I dedicate this to Colin McRae because he helped me so much at the beginning of my career. When others didn’t believe in me, he did. He took me under his wing and helped me in the British Rally Championship and Junior World Rally Championship, without this it would not have been possible. I owe everything to him. That is not to disrespect all the other people in between and especially Yves Matton who two years ago when I had no opportunities decided to give me one in Finland. So this win is a little step in the pay back.

Q:
Everybody was worried this morning when at the end of the first stage you didn’t give any interviews and we thought there might be a problem. Was it just focus?
KM:
I heard some noises in the stage and I had a strange feeling and I was trying to figure out in my head what it was, but there was no drama. We were just focussed on the last stage.

Q:
How much does this boost your confidence as a driver to get that first win under your belt?
KM:
Confidence has really been an issue this year. I haven’t been able to get to the finish line and for the manufacturers it is so important to get to the end and get the points. So the confidence in the driving was okay but something was stopping me to win a rally. I knew I had to do something this year because with more than a year’s experience and a lot of work and effort I was putting pressure on myself and finally the long break between Mexico and here helped me. I cleared my head and came here with a clean sheet of paper because we had to make new pace notes for the whole rally and it seemed to work.

Q:
I spoke with your engineer in Mexico and he had ultimate faith in you. He was sure that when you started winning rallies you would keep on and on. How are you feeling about the rest of the season?
KM:
Yes Didier has had the experience of being with Sebastien Loeb. I have so many good guys around me. Without question we have a very strong car in the championship. The roads here, for me, where the roughest I have ever seen and the car has run without a problem. It is a credit to the team and to their experience. They are able to see everything that could possibly go wrong and between the stages they are always reminding me of what can happen. So it is invaluable to have that team behind you.

Q:
First WRC win. How are you feeling about it all?
PN:
I don’t know yet. I need a couple of days to come round. It has been a tough weekend. Yesterday in the morning we were checking everything in the first pass in order to consolidate our lead in the afternoon. I think we have learned over the last couple of rallies and maybe from last year. This morning I was relaxed and as long as we kept out of troube, we would have the victory.

Q:
Were there any stressful moments in the car when you were felling pressure?
PN:
Yesterday there was a bit but Friday we were in front and after the service even Yves assumed Jari (Latvala) would be leading that evening and we just kept going and then Jari had problems on the Super Special. Yesterday we just wanted to get through the stages and especially the 42 kilometre stage because it is very tricky at the end and it is very easy to make a mistake. So yesterday was tense, today was relaxed.

Q:
We saw Kris’ emotion on TV, how moved were you when you came to the finish Paul?
PN:
I’m surprised I kept it all together. Maybe it will happen when I get home. It was very emotional. It is a dream come true because the ultimate goal is to win a rally and a World Championship. So it’s fantastic.

Q:
Second position and a strong position in the Championship now Mads. How are you feeling about your event this weekend? Are you happy?
MO:
Yes, for sure. It has been a great event and especially for the team. We have shown that we have a strong car. I was very disappointed in Day 1 when I had a technical problem in my car on the first stage and we lost a lot of time but apart from that the car has been very strong and with all the stages we have done, so rough, we have just been able to drive the way we wanted and not even being worried that something would break. So it is quite amazing to see that. Obviously I fought very hard during the weekend but I think that we have managed well and it has been a great job by literary the whole team. Everybody worked together and it has been a fantastic experience.

Q:
Did you feel confident with your pace in relation to Jari-Matti?
MO:
I felt confident driving, I just like to be in the car. I didn’t really care about the stages, I knew my car, I just like to be in the car, enjoyed the stages and I didn’t feel pressure at any time. I did exactly what I wanted to do. I don´t think Yves has given me one piece of information or orders during the rally. He´s been quite nice. He´s been a good boss this weekend and that´s what I really like about him. I have been driving my own pace. I felt confident especially when I ended up in a fight with Jari. No worry at all. I don´t know why but it was just what it was.

Q:
When you both came in and the whole team celebrated the one-two, how did you feel?
MO:
For me that´s the bigger thing than being second in the rally. It´s to see that team effort. I’ve only been in the team for over a year but to see how hard everyone is working, this is what I noticed from the first day in Citroën, they’re such hard working people. To see that paying off and being part of that is really special. I´ve always seen that in pictures, all the podium, the full team. This time Kris was on the top of the car. I prefer myself to be on the top of the car but anyway to be a part of that group on the podium together with the winning car is a fantastic feeling. So I can imagine how Kris feels because it is cool for me.

Q:
How are you feeling after a challenging weekend? As Mads said you have good pace but he has been feeling unwell so a great result considering everything?
JA:
Yes it´s been a great weekend for us even though Mads hasn´t been feeling 100%, but it hasn´t been too bad on the stages. It felt good, we had a good rhythm in all the stages. We kept on doing our own thing. We had a good feeling from the shakedown. It´s been a good weekend.

Q:
You were popping into the driver’s seat as well during the road sections…
JA:
Yes, I had to try out the new specs on the car, I needed to know how he was driving!

Q:
First time on the WRC podium, Elfyn, congratulations. Third place overall. Are you happy with that?
EE:
Yes, pretty happy. It´s been a tough weekend for a lot of people to be fair. We didn´t come here with an all-out attacking approach, we wanted to be cautious and much better than we were here last year after pretty safe driving. But at the same time I think it is still important to get the experience and we managed to do that. We had a fantasticly strong car, we had no problems with it at all. That is what gives us the podium at the end. It´s a great feeling.

Q:
You were in a great battle with Dani Sordo on the first day, you were really pushing each other.
EE:
I felt really comfortable with the car on the first day despite the problems on the first stage being caught in the dust. Otherwise the feeling was really good. When we moved to the second day I felt it was a little more tricky, I was perhaps on the conservative side and I think Dani went very well and he opened up the gap. So after that, we were in a bit of a no man´s land and we had to make sure we got the car to the end.

Q:
Was there a little bit of drama on the Power Stage?
EE:
We didn’t know exactly what it was but there was a strange feeling with some noise in the car and the guys will have to look what that was. When we saw Thierry we decided to back off, we made sure we got it home safely and let the guys investigate.

Q:
How are you feeling about the prospect of Portugal with brand new stages for everybody?
EE:
We are really looking forward to the new event, the spectators are incredible there so we are looking forward to going there. Of course we have the debut of the new car, things have gone pretty well in testing so we are looking forward to seeing how we are getting on with that. It should be good.

Q:
On to the podium for you both after what´s been a really challenging event, how did you find it this weekend?
DB:
It´s been tough with the condition of the stages. We are very happy with the result. We worked really hard to try to progress all these years and I think we are doing it rally by rally. We know we still have a long way to go in certain areas but in time we will be there.

Q:
How good does it feel to be on the podium, you didn´t expect it today but it´s a good feeling at the end of it?
DB:
It´s very good. I think I´m in 80 something world rallies now and this is the first time on the podium so it took a while to get here! It was worth waiting, it´s a happy moment that I will remember for a long time.

Q:
Citroën one-two here in Argentina and Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle with their first WRC win too; a dream result for the team and for the Manufacturers’ Championship. How are you feeling at the end of it?
YM:
I´m very happy. What have the first and second places here in Argentina, I have to thank Argentina because each time we are coming here we have a success. After a long time the result is a victory, I´m really happy for the team members because they stayed committed for all these months and like Kris said, it was a very rough and difficult rally, he showed that the car is strong and everybody is doing a great job. But also for Kris we started to work together over one year, there is a lot of commitment in Kris to achieve this. Mads was doing a very clever weekend applying what he did also in Mexico and at the end it worked very well and he got second place in the Championship.

Q:
Kris mentioned that you had a lot of faith in him to give him his drive and he hopes this win somehow repays that faith. How much?
YM:
It´s a little part of what he has to pay to me. If he thinks that one victory is enough that´s not correct!

Q:
What is the hope for the rest of the season, can there be more victories?
YM:
Yes, I think that Monte Carlo has showed that the 2015 world rally car is good and we are going in the right direction. Now that Kris has won one rally I hope that Mads wins one rally with the Citroën also.

FIA WRC 2 CHAMPIONSHIP

Present:
1st – Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari
1st – Marshall Clarke

Q:
Congratulations to you both. Abdulaziz, a great start for you and a win in one of the toughest events we’ve seen so far on the Championship calendar. Argentina is a classic, how are you feeling at the end of it?
AA-K:
Very good. It’s a very good feeling when you win and it was one of the toughest rallies of my life. But, as I said before the rally, I have good experience in tough rallies because I come from Qatar and the desert where we have very tough rallies, so that helped me a lot. I knew when to push and when to go slow. Honestly we drove really well the first day. We got a good gap and of course the penalty for Protasov helped us. And then, yesterday and today, we didn’t push much. This was the secret to win this rally. I’m very happy to win for the second time this rally out of the three times that I came to Argentina. I’m really happy to win again.

Q:
You mentioned the roughness and the similarities to what you have at home and that you are used to rough events. Did you enjoy the stages here?
AA-K:
Of course, especially Agua de Oro, the long stage, I enjoyed it a lot. I really like this stage and I wish I could do a lot of stages like that because you have to be clever. There were three or four different parts in the stage, different gravel, different twists, some places were really tricky, some of them fast and wide, so it’s important to know where to push and where not to. I enjoy the stage a lot.

Q:
Great points for the Championship. Looking ahead to the other rallies, where else do you think you are going to be strong?
AA-K:
Before this rally, we were 11th in WRC 2 because we did only Mexico, but now after this win I’m second or third in the championship and it is really good. Now we are going to a very tough rally in Portugal. There it will be very difficult with very fast European drivers, but Portugal is a new rally so it will be the first time for everyone. This will show who has good pace notes, who trusts his notes... It will be fun there.

Q:
Talking about notes. How did it all work between you this weekend?
AA-K:
This is our third rally together. We started in Mexico, then Kuwait and the third is a win in Argentina. He’s a very cool guy, always tries to cool me down when I get nervous about anything. We really enjoy to rally together and of course he has good experience which helps me in the rally car and the good thing is that I scored my best result ever in the WRC. I’m seventh here. My best was 10th in the overall, but this is the best result and I’m happy to give him the first time in the top 10.

Q:
Marshall, great result for you guys. As Abdulaziz said, a win in WRC 2 but within the WRC top 10 as well. A really clever drive out there this weekend…
MC:
Yes. It was a controlled drive to be honest. Obviously it’s great to finish and to win in WRC 2. It was just a question of avoiding the rocks and trying to be steady more than showing a great speed, because speed can come; there is no problem with the speed. So it was good to be able to manage and control your speed to get the result. It was what we tried to do this weekend and we succeeded.

Q:
Talk to me about the rally from a co-driver’s perspective. Abdulaziz said he loved Agua de Oro, from your perspective how was it out there? Did you enjoy it?
MC:
I enjoyed every moment. This is my first time here and I think the stages are absolutely fantastic. Apart from being rough in some places, but that was the same for everybody. In general I thought every stage was very good. He prefers Agua de Oro, I prefer San Marcos.
Q:
As you said , it was a controlled drive. From the outside it didn’t look as if you guys had any problems at all, but where the any moments?
MC:
No, nothing to report.
Q:
How does it feel to get the first win in WRC 2 and to be within the WRC top 10?
MC:
It’s a special feeling, absolutely. I think this is my third win; I won PWRC in Rally Ireland, WRC 3 in Finland and now WRC 2 in Argentina. Every one is very special, but this one is fantastic because of having the overall points. What else can you ask for?