With:Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Jarosław Baran, LOTOS Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5, first placeBryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri, Gemini Clinic Rally Team Citroën DS3 R5, second placeGrzegorz Grzyb/Robert Hundla, Rufa Sport Ford Fiesta R5, third place
Q: How pleased are you to win at home?
KK: I’m absolutely delighted. It was a perfect weekend for me and we did everything right. We are leading the championship yes but the important thing is that we have finally won a rally. It was a very big fight – Bryan in particular was driving really well and he is a very fast driver. So he was fighting with me and pushing me hard. This makes it even more special to win. So I think tonight is going to be a tough night!
QHow close do you feel you are to the championship again now?
KK:I don’t know! Yes we are in a good situation but there are still three rallies to go in the championship so you can never tell and we are taking it rally by rally. Of course the plan is to win the title again but you cannot assume that. There is still a lot of work to do and we will keep concentrating hard. I’m not thinking of that.
Q: Jarosław, how tough was this rally?
JB:I just came back from holiday in Italy so I was feeling relaxed and ready for action again. Of course this was a very tough rally but I think that we did a good job. We were very fast today and now we need to carry on like this. We were pushing hard and when you are pushing hard every rally is tough.”
Q: Bryan, did you think you could win?
BB: Honestly the pace of Kajto was too quick for me here. We didn’t have the perfect feeling with the car from the start of the rally and Kajto was really going fast. We did our best but it was not going to be possible to win, so we finish second and we have to be happy with that, especially as we had some problems on the final day. Big congratulations to Kajto and Jarek: they really deserved to win.
Q: Did you think you might not finish the rally?
BB: Yes we had a problem with the radiator, so in the end we had to plug the hole with chewing gum and then fill the radiator with some water that we had. Luckily my co-driver Xavier Panseri is a Dakar co-driver as well so he is an expert at fixing things and dealing with tricky situations like this! In the end we were able to make the finish and it was fine, which is never guaranteed in situations like this; especially as we had the warning light in the car.
Q: Xavier, was it an enjoyable rally from your perspective?
XP: Yes of course. We always have a fantastic welcome here and it is a brilliant rally, with some really amazing stages. Of course I wanted for us to win here, because Bryan has more rally wins here than me so I wanted to add to my total! But in the end it was not possible, because of course that is how the sport is and this is normal. What was important was that we had a great weekend; it was a very enjoyable rally.
Q: Grzegorz, how pleased are you to be on the podium at home?
GG: Of course it is always a pleasure to be on the podium of your home rally. We had a few problems but then we were able to fight back, so this was good. In the end we couldn’t fight with Kajto and Bryan on time, but our priority was the Polish Championship, so this is very good result with regard to this.
Q: Robert, how much of a challenge was this rally for driver and co-driver?
RH:Very challenging like always. The stages were complex, the opposition was very strong, and we had a wide range of weather conditions as well. It was not always easy for us, so well done to our whole team as well for helping us to this important result.
