WRC – A start to the rally that is costly for Ford drivers

Third and fourth at the finish, Latvala and Solberg made no mistakes in Finland, but they were never able to thwart the plans of Citroën Racing, which scored a fourth consecutive double in WRC. According to Malcolm Wilson, poor settings on the two Ford Fiesta RS WRCs got the better of the British team's ambitions. " The start of rally cost us dearly, Wilson explains. On such a tight rally, we knew it would be difficult to come back. The best example is seeing four drivers in 0,3 seconds after a 23 kilometer long special stage. We were on pace today and yesterday afternoon, but we made a small setup error and we were unable to come back. Citroën has made good progress but I know that Jari-Matti was not at his level on Thursday and yesterday. »

Even if Citröen is still gaining momentum in the championship, Gerard Quinn, manager of Ford Racing in Europe, highlighted the work done by his drivers. “I have the greatest respect for the efforts made this weekend by Jari-Matti and Petter. It's not the result we dreamed of but they did a very good job on the fastest roads in the WRC. »

Discover the analysis of the Rally of Finland carried out by our special correspondents in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.