Six drivers talk about ArgentinaThe second portion of the pre-event FIA press conference in which Chris Atkinson, Luis Perez Companc,
Sebastien Loeb, Mikko Hirvonen, Gabriel Pozzo and Niall McShea participated.
Q: Welcome Mikko. You come here off the back of Rally
Portugal, where you and your team- mate
Marcus Gronholm both picked up a five-minute penalty for a technical issue at the finish. How big a blow was that to your chances? How do you try and bounce back from disappointments like that and does this increase your motivation for Argentina? What do you think it's possible for you to do here?
MIKKO HIRVONEN: Personally for me I lost two points, which is a shame. Okay, we had a small silly mistake in the team but we have to put that behind us and concentrate on this rally and the future. Okay, they needed to investigate what happened but we know that now and everything is fine. I really love this rally and the stage they have here but I don't have much experience of it. So I will have to just try to get as many points as I can and maybe challenge for the lead.
Q: Chris, what are your goals for this event? Is a podium place just possible, or a target?
CHRIS ATKINSON: I think we go in with similar expectations as the last two events. Most important is to finish in the top five but I think it's hard for us to challenge any higher than that at the moment.
Q: Luis, tell us a little bit about the stages for this year.
What are the conditions going to be like generally?
LUIS PEREZ-COMPANC: You have many conditions: twisty parts, fast parts and loose rocks so I think it's a really tough three days but all the same, it's really fun to drive here.
Q: The Citroen C4 faces a new type of challenge here, with the softer gravel of Argentina and more uncertain weather. You have always performed very well in the past on events where the weather is uncertain – such as Portugal – so what will happen here?
SEBASTIEN LOEB: For sure it's a bit more slippery here than it is in Portugal and Mexico, so my driving style has to be different, but I hope the car will go well although we obviously have to adjust the settings for here.
Q: You've been testing as well Mikko, also in Sardinia. You tried out some parts for the 2007-spec Focus that will appear later this year: what did you think about it and how did it go? Was it just a development test, or were you also looking at some things that might help you here?
MH: Some small things we found out in the Sardinia test that can help us here. There are always small things that can do that but we were mainly testing parts for the new car. But I'm sure we are going to be competitive here anyway.
Source Rally Argentina
