“The pace is not good so far. We have to find it before tomorrow.”

Thierry how do you feel about the new season?
Everybody is excited about the year ahead. I’m really looking forward to it. Last year was a great season, but this year hopefully can be even greater. I was the best performer last year, but I did not clinch the title – that was the objective. I’m looking forward to a challenging and intense season.

How’s the car set-up?
The set-up is good, I’m very confident we have a good setting we had a good test and the car is pretty similar to last year, so yes I’m pretty confident.

Tell us about Sisteron in reverse…
That’s going to be really tough to be honest. We have never done the stage in this direction and we only did it once per year in the other way, so it’s not a stage we know well. We should wait for a lot of surprises, especially in the cold and in the dark.

Shakedown Results:
1. Neuville T. / Gilsoul Nicolas (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 2:00.20
2. Sordo Dani / Del Barrio C. (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +0:00.10
3. Tänak Ott / Järveoja M. (Toyota Yaris WRC) +0:00.50
4. Meeke Kris / Nagle Paul (Citroen C3 WRC) +0:00.7
5. Mikkelsen A. / Jæger Anders (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +0:00.8
6. Latvala J. / Anttila Miikka (Toyota Yaris WRC) +0:01.30