Hagfors service: Rovanpera finds speed
At the first service area of the final leg, Harri Rovanpera has held onto his lead despite fresh snow on the morning's first two stages. Carlos Sainz suffered yesterday after running at the front and acting as snow plough to the rest of the field. Rovanpera, though, seems to have taken to the task like a duck to water, leaving the Mitsubishi duo of Tommi Makinen and Thomas Radstorm - and Carlos - firmly in his wake. Nobody is quite sure where Rovanpera is finding his speed from and only the charging Richard Burns, Colin McRae and Markko Martin - all of whom are well down the order - have outdone the Finn for pace so far today
"I'm a little bit surprised to be so much quicker than Tommi, but he's only one car behind me on the road, so he didn't have as much chance to make up time anyway. I'm not thinking about the win yet."
"Everything went well, but if Harri [Rovanpera] is going to set those times then it's going to be impossible [to win]. He's driving incredibly well."
"I was a little bit slow in the first stage [today], but if you look at the longer stage I was only two seconds slower than Tommi [Makinen] over 27 km and I'm sure he's going flat out."
"My Flu is better now, but my head is still not right. It's not a question of the car. I just want to see the finish now." [Auriol has bronchitis].
"The grip feels better today and I have more confidence in the car so maybe I can push."
"I took snow tyres and they were completely the wrong choice. I had no grip at all, but you have to gamble sometimes and it was my own decision."
"We stalled the engine at the start of the first stage [this morning] and then we had problems with the joystick [the electronic gear shift] in the second stage so we had to revert to the manual shift, which worked ok."
"We got the right tyres because Petter chose the wrong ones. I'm not taking chances, but I don't think I can go any faster. I would probably be a bit more conservative if I was fighting for the lead."
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