3.9.2008 - Mikko Hirvonen: Battle continues and we are ready for it

I'm very sorry for the fact that I haven't been in a writing mode for a long time. Now as I'm returning from Rally NZ I've plenty of time to write my thoughts on our long flight. The season has gone into its' final quarter and lots of things have happened during it - as you've propably noticed =)...

We suffered a major setback from Rally NZ. Like I've said before it definitely was one of the biggest dissapointments of my career. But I cannot worry it no more because its' not going to change into direction nor other. A slogan "If it dosn´t kill you, it makes you stronger" is right sentence for this moement. Ofcourse the situation could be different. I could be only two points behind Sebastien Loeb but now the gap is eight points and we'll to live with it. I just have to keep pushing and trying to catch him as long as its' mathematically possible - I promise you I will not give up the fight!

After summer holiday the rallies hasn't gone as the way I expected to be. From my home rally, legendary Jyväskylä I suffered a major loss in front of my fellow countrymen. However the battle for the victory was very fierce and wonderful. We drove three days with so big risk that we there was major luck with us not to hit any stones nor face any other problems. But when you'll get a good feeling, everything works (except victory this time). It also worked for Sebastien and we lost the victory to France. I'm very sorry for the thing but I promise you it won't happen again! After the rally I was very confident that we'll give strong performance on remaining gravel rallies.

Then after six months in Germany we faced tarmac again. In season 2007 we were in good speed at dry tarmac. During the rally we all were very surprised by the fact that we could rally with dry tarmac. I must put a cross into a wall for that! At Friday our speed was very good and I believe we gave something to think about for Team Citroen. On tarmac our speed has increased a lot and it will be increased a lot more. However on Saturday we couldn't match for Citroens' speed - even I really, really tried to do so. Then we faced a puncure on Baumholder and it was game over for the victory. I was very glad to see our improved speed on tarmac as on Sunday we we're back on the track on more technical stages. Before Spanish and French WRC tarmac events we'll be rallying for long developement tests and therefore we'll be rallying for the victories on those both remaining tarmac events.

And finally some words from Rally NZ. For long time I thought what to write and then decided to summarize the event into one sentence "It all f*ck*d up on final day, but this is motorsport". The longer the season has gone, the more interesting rallies and battles we've faced.

On last year I had many rallies where I pushed the limit on Friday and then two days secured Championship points. In this season we have had lots of rallies where we have had to push all three days up untill the finish flag. Before the season opening round I analyzed myself to be a competitor who rallies for podium positions in all rallies. My speed is still improving on gravel and especially on tarmac and therefore on forthcoming season I will rally only for the victories. I think in Rally NZ we showed that for Citroen. OK we faced very bad luck but the game is not yet over. Ofcourse I know how hard its' going to be, but the Rome wasn't build in a day...

Four rallies still ahead of us - nothing to lose, eight Championship points...
Best Regards, Mikko Hirvonen