Mads Østberg: „It was good battle between me and Thierry. We did some changes in setup in the morning which didn’t work very well so we changed it back. It was for us a very importand rally before Finland, we tested different setups and got lot of confidence. Organization of auto24 Rally Estonia was great, good stages lot of spectators and good atmosphere.”
Thierry Neuville: „It was for us the first time to race in Estonia. Stages were as good as we hoped even little bit better. Okay we didn’t won the rally but it was anyway for us good preparation before Neste Oil Rally Finland. And I think we have to come back next year to get the auto24 Rally Estonia trophy helmet.”
Third place overall went to the best Estonian crew, Georg Gross and Raigo Mõlder (Ford Focus WRC) losing 1.44,9 to Østberg. Fourth overall were Martin Prokop and Zdenek Hruza (Ford Fiesta RS WRC). Fifth overall were Karl Kruuda and Martin Järveoja driving Ford Fiesta S2000. Best Group N crew Kaspar Koitla and Alo Ivask (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9) were sixth overall.
A6/N3 winners were Markus Abram and Jarmo Võsa (Honda Civic Type-R), in national group Marko Mänty and Joni Mäkela (Honda Civic Type-R).
Auto24 Rally Estonia was also a round of European Championshiop for Historic cars. WRC star Jari-Matti Latvala had a weekend off and he was having fun in Estonia with Ford Escort BDA. Showing very strong stagetimes Latvala and co-driver Asko Sairanen won auto24 Rally Estonia Historic 2012. Jari-Matti’s father Jari won auto24 Rally Estonia Historic last year with the same car. Second place and class win in Category 4 went to Valter Jensen and Erik Pedersen from Norway driving legendary Lancia 037. Third place overall and second place in Category 3 were Mika Turkki and Mikko Tuominenen (Opel Ascona 400). Category 2 fastest were Mats Myrsell ja Esko Junttila (Porsche 911 RS) and in Category 1 were winners Sverre Norrgard ja Eugen Damsted (BMW 2002 TI). It is very likely that auto24 Rally Estonia will host round of European championship for Histroic cars once again.
More information: www.rallyestonia.ee
