top of page

News and quotes SS 12 (Granit und Wald 2)

A repeat of the morning loop of three stages in Bavaria and Austria began with the second visit to the Granit und Wald stage for 20.05 km of competitive action in autumn sunshine and on dry asphalt. Newly-restored leader of the Central European Rally, Toyota’s eight-time World champion Sébastien Ogier, was reeled in dramatically by the flying Hyundai of 2019 champion Ott Tänak, the gap between them closing to just 1.1 seconds after a stage win for the Estonian. It was a much calmer run for many drivers, although Takamoto Katsuta was handed a 16-second penalty for speeding by 8 km/h through the virtual chicane section of this stage on the morning pass. In WRC2, local hero Filip Mareš made his many fans take a deep breath when he spun in the stage but he remained in third position in the class.



#9 Andreas Mikkelsen (NOR) / Torstein Eriksen (NOR) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid

“It’s very clean, even the cuts, everything is quite clean. Not as difficult as this morning that’s for sure. All fine.”

 

#19 Jourdan Serderidis (GRE) / Frédéric Miclotte (BEL) Ford Puma Rally1 (non-Hybrid)

“More dry but more tricky because there are a lot of gravel some places are very, very tricky so it’s more dangerous than the morning but faster.”

 

#13 Grégoire Munster (LUX) / Louis Louka (BEL), Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid

“Actually the Tarmac is fully dry, just when you get ito the forest it’s still a bit damp but very muddy in the cuts so some poles are gone, some cuts appear from nowhere so for sure it’s more tricky but if you stay in the line it’s not too much of a problem. Still struggling a bit with the front but we are in a much better place than yesterday.”

 

#5 Sami Pajari (FIN) / Enni Mälkönen (FIN), Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid

“Quite okay, still some places or quite many places with some dirt and a little bit of dampness still so it’s still not so clean but quite enjoyable anyway. I think it’s like again quite solid, clean run. Obviously on the dry condition then you need to really be committed and to know how much you can go for all the corners so it’s still not so easy and a different type of learning then but yeah it’s quite nice anyway.”

 

#18 Takamoto Katsuta (JPN) / Aaron Johnson (IRL), Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid

“For sure drier than this morning.”

 

#33 Elfyn Evans (GBR) / Scott Martin (GBR), Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid

“Just difficult conditions out there. We did what we could but let’s see.” 

 

#8 Ott Tänak (EST) / Martin Järveoja (EST), Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid

“Yeah let’s see, we try our best, conditions still not easy but at least we knew from the first pass but not easy. Some places the anti-cuts have been moved from the road from the first pass so some sketchy situations so.”

 

#17 Sébastien Ogier (FRA) / Vincent Landais (FRA), Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid

“Still in the lead!”

 

#11 Thierry Neuville (BEL) / Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL), Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid

“We had a clean stage through, it’s nothing we can do at the moment so obviously really disappointed for the mistakes this morning but until there there was no warnings and the feeling was good. Just the wrong pacenotes and it happened. We will see, I don’t know, it’s more drier and more predictable as well..”

  

#22 Nikolay Gryazin (BUL) / Konstantin Aleksandrov (ANA), Citroën C3 Rally2

“Quite slippy because of the cuts the rest was okay. I lost a lot on the virtual chicane because the GPS was not showing the real speed. I just also went into first gear and it’s showing like 100 km/h – I don’t know how to react so I just slow down to I think maybe 30 or 20 km/h and go again but I didn’t see anything from this GPS. Okay today maybe it’s no more virtual chicane but for tomorrow they need somehow to fix it.”

 

#20 Oliver Solberg (SWE) / Elliott Edmondson (GBR), Škoda Fabia RS Rally2

“We changed the car now like how it should have been this morning and the feeling is back. I can drive calm, nice and I’m enjoying myself. It’s nice… for sure there is some unexpected moments of gravel here and there but it’s good fun. It’s just to get (the setup) a bit softer, more progressive, this morning was very slippery and we were a bit on the stiff side so now we went softer to get it a bit more progressive.”

bottom of page