ANDREAS MIKKELSEN, TOKSPORT WRT, ŠKODA FABIA RALLY2 EVO (FIA ERC1 winner)
“This island is magical, one of my favourite rallies in the world and I am so happy to be back, the people are so positive and so happy. The rally was very demanding because [Friday] was full of rain, very foggy, very muddy and today was much better conditions so you have all types of different conditions out there. It was a great challenge. The last stage, Sete Cidades, was amazing and so many people over there watching. I am so happy we got really nice weather on that stage because the TV footage will be absolutely amazing, to show the world how amazing the Azores is. It was a really nice battle [with Dani Sordo]. We managed to make a difference on the first two stages after service, we really pushed hard. For the last stage we could relax a bit because it’s quite a tricky stage. We had some seconds [in hand] so I didn’t need to take risks. In some places it’s a bit scary to go flat out so I tried to take care and pushed where I felt comfortable. I tried to be clever. It’s a great result for us and the team and for the championship it’s looking good as well, so we’ll try to push again in Fafe. We have a big lead so I am really looking forward to getting to Fafe, back to Portugal again already in two weeks.”

JAVIER PARDO, SUZUKI MOTOR IBÉRICA, SUZUKI SWIFT R4LLY S (FIA ERC2 winner)
“It’s a very good job by all the team and my co-driver, not just by me. The car was also very good and always the problems were repaired in the service by professional people. I am very happy with this third victory. On stage 11, one or two kilometres after the start, I feel the car was bad in the rear and when I finished the stage, I could see it was leaking outside the damper and it’s very difficult to finish like this because I could not push. In the second stage of the afternoon I go very slow because it’s easy to break something. Now I do Rally Fafe, which I have done two times. It’s a very good rally and I will go there to push again.”

JEAN-BAPTISTE FRANCESCHI, TOKSPORT WRT, RENAULT CLIO RALLY4 (FIA ERC3 winner)
“Like I said to my co-driver [Anthony Gorguilo] it’s more difficult to do stages in survival mode than having to push because of the big lead we had at the start of the day. But we had to survive and finish this day. It was a long day, but our only objective was to score the maximum points for the championship that we could. For sure it was not easy and we had to stay focused because this rally was very difficult for the first time and it’s easy to make a mistake or have problems. We managed the car and we managed to stay on the road, staying focused all day long. The car had no problems and this result is perfect for the championship. We are now leading ERC3 as well as ERC3 Junior so we have to focus on the next events and give the maximum. For me I enjoy driving the stages so much in this car, the engine is very powerful, the chassis is nice and for sure it’s a very good car as we see from the result. The team is, of course, very good as well and I have to thank Renault Sport and Toksport WRT for this opportunity. I hope we can continue on this way for the rest of the season.”

EFRÉN LLARENA, RALLYE TEAM SPAIN, ŠKODA FABIA RALLY2 EVO (ERC-MICHELIN Talent Factory leading finisher)
“We lose the podium in Roma by 0.3s and here we won it by three seconds. For sure it’s not the best way to do it, honestly I am not happy about Ricardo Moura’s crash, but we did our best. In the last stage we just go flat out, the grip at the rear was completely gone and we were just touching all the banks immediately when I put in the throttle. I tried to be fast but not do a mistake. To be on the podium with two World Rally Championship drivers is very important, they are two of the best drivers in Europe and the world and Dani is a Spaniard who has been in the world championship for 12 or 15 years. It’s our fourth race on gravel in an R5 car, we can do it better but step by step.”