M-Sport privateer Rally Mexico final summary

Elsewhere, End Of Day Quotes, Rally Mexico, Day 3

Mads Ostberg and Jonas Andersson, Ford Fiesta RS WRC

Photo by: Ford Motor Company

Mads Østberg, Adapta Motorsport World Rally Team (4th) said:

“This was a tricky event for sure. It has been a bit up and down for us. We came here to fight for fifth and hopefully challenge some of the factory drivers. Ok, we have challenged them on some stages but not overall.

“But I think it has been a good event. We almost managed to stay out of trouble, but then when we did get into trouble [with a puncture on SS22] we had it in the worst possible place!

“But ok, we managed to get through and secure a good position and also with a Power Stage point at the end – I am very pleased with that.

“I am looking forward to doing some testing with the car ahead of Portugal because we have been trying a lot of different things this weekend. We will try some new strategies and a few things with the set-up of the car. I think we can still improve the car a lot and for sure I can improve as well so hopefully we can fight for a podium in Portugal.”

Ken Block, Monster World Rally Team (9th) said:

“I’m glad to be finished with a total of three punctures over three days! Today the long stage went really well actually, until I had a little mistake in my notes. It wasn’t even that bad of a mistake. It was just ‘don’t cut’ on a very tight corner and I went wide to make sure I didn’t hit whatever I had warned myself about on the inside. But as I stayed out, the road kind of dropped away into a bank and we skidded on the lose stuff and got two punctures.

“But I was able to finish ninth overall which is great. Ok three guys out today – and really unfortunate that Jari-Matti [Latvala] was one of them.

“I’m stoked with the overall result in the top-ten, but it is not that way that I would have wanted it to be. We are just going to come back and work harder next time.”

Ricardo Triviño (10th) said:

“I am so happy! This was a fantastic result for me. This was my first time in the WRC and to finish in the top-ten with one point on my home event is fabulous!”

Chris Atkinson, Monster World Rally Team (DNF) said:

“The rally has been ok but unfortunately we had a couple of problems. We had the brake problem yesterday and broke the suspension because of that and then today we had the suspension lose its oil. So to have two problems like that is really frustrating because we could have had a good result here.

“It is good to be back in the WRC [World Rally Championship], but it is always disappointing not to get a result. We set a few good times – a third fastest and a second fastest – and we were doing some decent times on the long stages. So the speed was there, we just have to get some more time in the car and have a bit more luck.

“I hope we can do some more events with the Monster [World Rally Team] boys later in the year – the team is awesome.”