Podium, Mikołajki Main Square, 18h30, 23 September

Present:
Nikolay Gryazin/Yaroslav Fedorov (Sports Racing Technologies), first position
Jari Huttunen/Antti Linnaketo (BRC Racing Team), second position
Chris Ingram/Ross Whittock (Toksport WRT), third position
 
Q:
Your second career victory in the FIA European Rally Championship and your first on PZM Rally Poland, how pleased are you?
 
NG:
I’m really happy because I didn’t expect to win this rally. I wanted to win the ERC Junior U28 [classification] but I was able to win [overall] so it’s really good for me. We had a few problems. On the last loop we had no tyres and we just had to survive, so it was a bit advantage for Jari Huttunen because he had better tyres. It was our mistake. He had a penalty, I’m really sorry for him but that gave me the chance to win. Honestly, he was really fast. I hope in the future we’re going to have a fight with him again. On the second loop I understood that he will be faster. For sure it was difficult but I just calmed down because I had to have good points in U28, so I was even prepared not to win.
 
Q:
How did you find the last loop of the rally?
 
JH:
I really enjoyed the stages. I pushed really hard, in one corner we went too flat out. I think it was good weekend, we enjoy driving here. It was full attack all the time.
 
Q:
Why did you get a 10s penalty?
 
JH:
We changed one part and it took a bit longer than we expected.
 
Q:
What were your expectations before the rally?

JH:
We come here without any tests but I know we can improve. I also knew It will be difficult to fight with [Nikolay] Gryazin. Normally I like high-speed gravel rallies so I thought it can be good.
 
Q:
Before the rally did you expect such a result?

CI:
If you said we’ll be on the podium in the end, I would have taken it, so I’m really happy. It’s an amazing feeling to finally get my first international podium. I haven’t got any experience driving an R5 car on such a fast stages so we’re really happy with the pace. Obviously, the top two guys were in a league of their own and I think we’ve done our best and we’re really pleased. I learned so much this weekend. In the quali we were eighth or ninth so we’ve improved all the time which is amazing. I want to do a rally again… next week. Massive thanks to the team and all my sponsors.

ENDS