“It was a complicated stage – not a lot of water around just damp patches. The car is okay, we have a little understeer, but it's okay, I'm happy,” said Sordo after completing the first stage, as reported by the WRC official site.
Hirvonen was also happy with how things progressed during SS1, as he was the first driver to take on the bone dry roads of the 20.48km Mussara stage.
“I'm happy, no problems, but I thought the road would be drier. It was slippery in the damp sections - which could cause problems for everybody. It was dry at the start, though, and I managed to get some heat in the tires there,” said the Ford driver.
Loeb also pointed at the slippery conditions during the SS1, as he reckoned the first outing in the rally was very tricky and tough to handle. In addition, he admitted to have encountered some problems with his Citroen C4 that weren't there during the Thursday shakedown.
“It was damp near the start and hard to warm the tires so the car was very nervous. I have some understeering, too, which I didn't have at the shakedown or on the test. Maybe we need to look into that at the service. The hard tyre wasn't the best here. I'm hoping the next stages are drier,” said the Frenchman.
Petter Solberg, driving the Citroen C4 WRC for the first time this season, ended the first special stage in 4th place, some 13.9 seconds behind Loeb. Two full seconds behind the Norwegian came Ford's second driver Jari-Matti Latvala, while Sebastien Ogier, Henning Solberg and Evgeny Novikov completed the Top 8.
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