"I did Portugal and Sardinia in this spec car, but I struggled a bit. Here we also have a new front geometry for the first time. The car is now more reactive, much sharper."You can play a bit more with the set-up and still have a good reaction and a good handling of the car, which was really important. Before we were always making compromises between grip and handling. Now we can have a little bit of both.”
Mads Ostberg finished a brilliant second in Finland.
"I don't really know Craig that well yet, we only meet each other on events, but I think we are working really well together. He has a lot of experience as well."We can share our information and work together on development of the car. When he speaks to me I can understand everything he says, but when he talks with his friends on the telephone or at the rallies I have no clue what they are saying!”
A puncture on Friday in Finland put paid to Craig Breen's chances of a podium finish.
"Meanwhile, I have had a quite different experience when I did the Otago Rally in New Zealand in a classic Escort. It was really enjoyable. Fantastic car, fantastic rally."I was glad to take that opportunity and experience something else. I had never been to that country before. I loved it. It’s really amazing. "It reminded me a lot about home in Norway with the mountains, the lakes, the water, the fjords. Also the people are just amazing, probably the most friendly people in the world. "My priority is always with WRC, but of course if I think I have an invitation to come back to New Zealand I will accept it, but the WRC is my number one priority.”
Irishman Craig Breen is working well with team-mate Mads Ostberg.
"Definitely the car going in the right direction. Estonia was not exactly representative of Finland, but to get used to driving on really high speed stages, I don’t think you’ll pick a faster place than Estonia."In Estonia the roads, however, are really soft and are harder here in Finland. That was the first thing which took me a little more time in the test to get familiar with. "As for Finland, looking back to 2016 when I was on the podium, I’ll never forget that for the rest of my life. Last year it was difficult for us, but this year we’re in a completely different way. The car has improved so much since even the start of this year.”
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