Barum Czech Rally Zlín 

Flash info after the end of Barum rally

27. 8. 2018 - Karolína Lečbychová

Many crews did not make it to the finish but all of them stressed how much the conditions affected the rally. More than 50 crews were forced to retire. Positivity prevailed but some of them secretly hoped for a better result.

Bruno Magalhães (PRT, Škoda Fabia R5, Start. No. 2):
"The only good thing about this rally is that we finished. Otherwise it was a very bad weekend for us. We weren't confident in the beginning. Throughout the rally we tried to be fast, unfortunately had a totally wrong setup. We changed that, the car improved. But I was the first one to go today and I had no information about the current conditions on the road. It's like a lottery. The choice of tyres was completely wrong. I was not very fortunate."

Chris Ingram (GBR, Škoda Fabia R5, Start. No. 11):
"it was mostly about learning this year. In the end we had good times. We were second on the last one. So we were getting there towards the end, which shows we need more testing. This car is still very new to me."

Jaromír Tarabus (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5, Start. No. 21):
"We wanted to move up and we went down. So we're not that happy, we were hoping to scrape a better result. On the other hand we got some points for the Czech championship. Today's stages were drying out and we didn't have tyres for this and Ingram and Kreim had a better luck with them."

Fabian Kreim (DEU, Škoda Fabia R5, Start. No. 7):
"We're satisfied for sure. It was a very tough weekend with very difficult and changing conditions, sometimes wet, sometimes dry. We're happy."

Miroslav Jakeš (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5, Start. No. 27):
"It was a great race. We're going to be sorry about the result for a while, though. On the other hand I made some mistakes, we had two punctures, three times we were off the road. Maybe we could have fought for the first of second place. But that's hypothetical. Still, my mistake on Kašava cost us the podium."

Daniel Sordo (ESP, Hyundai i20 R5, Start. No. 5):
"It was my pleasure to cheer the fans. Many people here truly love rally. My job here was to try little bit a car, the result was not that important. We're on the podium but I had a problem with the turbo on the last stage and lost some time there."

Nikolay Gryazin (LVA, Škoda Fabia R5, Start. No. 9):
"Our goal was to win U28 and we did that. This was a very difficult rally and by the end we took it easy, just to be sure."

Jan Kopecký (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5, Start. No. 4):
"We did it. We're very happy. This was probably the most difficult race here. Luckily my team is amazing and car worked too."

Alexey Lukyanuk (RUS, Ford Fiesta R5, Start. No. 1):
"Rally is always different. This year we had a different strategy. This rally was completely different compared to the past two years here. Kopecký won and that's it. We learned a lot here and we take that with us."

Laurent Pellier (FRA, Peugeot 208 T16, Start. No. 10):
"We made it to the finish. But it was an incredibly hard weekend. I want to thank my team for helping us get there."

Jan Černý (CZE, Ford Fiesta R5, Start. No. 12):
"The only thing we can be happy about is that we made it here. I'm a bit disappointed about our result."

Orhan Avcioglu (TUR, Škoda Fabia R5, Start. No. 19):
"It was my first time here. I was learning a lot. Local stages are very difficult. Maybe I come back again. We'll see but the atmosphere here is amazing."

Antonín Tlusťák (CZE, Škoda Fabia R5, Start. No. 57):
"Like probably everybody else said. This year it was so difficult. In the end we wanted to avoid any accidents and get here safe and sound."

Martinš Sesks (LVA, Opel Adam R2, Start. No. 39)
"I'm happy about our result in U27, now it feels good to finish after forcing to retire on the past two rallies. It was a very hard weekend overall."

Erik Cais (CZE, Peugeot 208 R2, Start. No. 67)
"It was a beautiful rally. Crazy until the end. "

Simone Wagner (AUT, Peugeot 208 R2, Start No. 42)
"It was hard rally. We learned a lot and towards the end we had a good speed."