M-Sport Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson declared himself pleased with a second consecutive top five result after battling with Kimi Raikkonen throughout both days of the Jordan Rally.
Wilson lost position to the Ice 1 Racing Citroen driver on SS7 and started the final day in seventh place, 12 seconds behind Raikkonen. The gap between them fluctuated all day until the matter was decided when Raikkonen punctured a tyre on the penultimate stage. By then, both drivers had picked up a position after Petter Solberg crashed out.
“We changed the car a little bit on the first day as we adapted to the new tyres,” Wilson told WRC.com. “We’re still learning about them.
“We were a bit disappointed with the long stage on day one - I made a couple of little mistakes but nothing massive - and we really wanted to push on and get the position back. It was fun to race against [Kimi] Raikkonen.
“We’ve got a good track record at this rally and it’s great to finish with another top-five result straight after Portugal . We didn’t have too many dramas today - we hit a bank on a junction and stalled the engine on Stage 14 but it didn’t cost us too much time.
“At times we found it difficult to find good rhythm and decent grip but we were able to go flat out when the feeling was good. We’ve definitely noticed a big improvement with the Michelin tyres - they’re very strong and even though they’ve had to sacrifice some of the grip to make up for the durability, they’ve been fantastic for an event like this where it is so rocky out on the stages.”
Credit: World Rally Championship (www.wrc.com)
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