Sainz condemns bombings

Speaking ahead of Rally Mexico, which starts today (Friday), Sainz spoke about the bombings in Madrid, in which at least 198 people died. More than 1,400 people were injured as 10 bombs exploded on commuter trains during Thursday morning's rush hour.

"As everybody can imagine, when something like this happens, it's very difficult to understand how a human can do something like that to people who have nothing to do with what they are persuading or want," said Sainz. "It was a big shock. I just hope that things can come back to normal, but I'm sure it's already 200 people dead and over 1,500 people injured - for sure it has been a disaster. From this distance, it's very hard to understand what has happened."

Citroen's Sainz will have to put his emotions over the disaster to one side and concentrate on getting back into this year's WRC title fight after crashing out of the Monte Carlo season-opener and taking a disappointing fifth place in Sweden. He is looking forward to the new Mexican event, but not to the restrictions on tyre choice that have been enforced by the latest round of the rule changes.

"Here, the stages are very nice and in good condition," he said. "The only problem we have is that we had to make our tyre choice one month ago without knowing about the stages - that is something I find very stupid."