Date: 8/9/2023
Day: 2
Flash N°: 5
Special Stage: SS5 – Livadia
Distance: 21.03 km
Weather: 26οC, Cloudy
Road conditions: Mixed dry and damp gravel, with mud and water in places

#69 Kalle ROVANPERÄ / Jonne HALTTUNEN
“The stage was horrible. You didn’t know what to expect. There is so much loose gravel! It looks like the rain took all the gravel and left the stones. The stage will be better for the cars following”.

#33 Elfyn EVANS / Scott MARTIN
“Quite rough stage. You never knew what is coming next”.

#11 Thierry NEUVILLE / Martijn WYDAEGHE
“Probably we made a good tyre choice. It was a tough choice, but we go for: “All in”! It was a nice stage, but a rough one”.

#8 Ott TÄNAK / Martin JÄRVEOJA
“Probably we had the same problem as Loubet. We took it off and cleaned it, and it worked. Our road position is not so bad for the moment”.

#17 Sebástien OGIER / Vincent LANDAIS
“For sure it was the proper choice for here. But it’s a very long Rally and we don’t have so many softs. It’s all about the strategy”.

#4 Esapekka LAPPI / Janne FERM
“I didn’t have time to watch the onboard of this stage, so I didn’t have the marks on the pacenote. Also, the radiator is leaking”.

#18 Takamoto KATSUTA / Aaron JOHNSTON
“It’s obvious that we had no grip here with the hard tyres. Hopefully the next one will be better for us”.

#6 Daniel SORDO / Cándido CARRERA
“Very tricky conditions. Some parts of the stage are cleaning, but most of them are getting worse because of the mud. I was happy with the car, but it’s not easy to make a proper, really nice stage”.

#9 Jourdan SERDERIDIS / Frederic MICLOTTE
“I love this stage! It has a little bit of everything. Maximum fun”.

COMMENTS
Ott Tanak came back with an impressive time and wins SS5, despite the fact that he is further back in the classification after the problem with the water pump. Thierry Neuville made the proper tyre choice for the stage and was second faster. Sebastien Ogier was close, but now he is 7.4 seconds behind the Belgian. Kalle Rovanpera chose the hard compound and lost a lot of time. He is third in the general classification, but now 20.1 seconds behind Neuville.

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