Day one is finished, and car is serviced. No problems are detected and everything is set for a new day. After an incident in the vineyards, where a branch from a vine literally turned off the main switch and activated the fire extinguisher, Mads and Jonas lost 5 minutes, to locate the actual reason for a total electrical breakdown, which also cut the contact with the team back at base.

It will therefore be difficult to fight for any good positions, but the main thing for this rally getting experience with the S2000 car, the surface and the rally, still remains the same.

”I was happy with the speed this morning,” Mads says. We were actually leading S-WRC after 2 splits on SS1, when we were yellow flagged, and then later on blue flagged. We were quickest on SS2, and we had very good speed before the button episode happened on SS3.

I am not so happy with the speed on the afternoon stages. We had a wet test on Monday, and with warm and dry today, we did some changes to the car that may be did not work so well, and slowed us down one step. But that is a part of the game, with a brand new car you need to try things to get it 100% for you own preferences, and this one didn’t turn out good. I have discussed it with my engineer, and we do some small changes back for tomorrow morning.”

“We are happy with our pace notes,” Jonas comments, “so we are really looking forward to the stages on the military area tomorrow. I cannot see any reason for not getting a good speed again tomorrow morning,” he finishes.