Wilson reflects on ‘brilliant’ Cyprus Rally

Briton Matthew Wilson secured fifth place on the Cyprus Rally, matching his best result of the 2008 season and rounding off the weekend with his first ever main stage victory.

The 22-year-old Stobart VK M-Sport team driver is enjoying his best start yet to a WRC season and following the seventh places he scored in Ireland and Norway, now lies sixth in the drivers’ championship - two points ahead of factory Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala.

Wilson and his co-driver Scott Martin initially struggled on Friday, when the rally was based on the island’s asphalt roads, but upped their game on Saturday when the competition switched to gravel, moving up three places in three stages and into a close battle for fifth with Citroen Junior Team driver Sebastien Ogier.

Ogier snatched fifth place after an engine stall set Wilson back several seconds on the rally’s 40 kilometre penultimate stage, but Wilson took the fight to Ogier on the short final one, posting the joint fastest time (with Latvala) and taking fifth when the Frenchman crashed 200 metres from the end.

“It has been a brilliant weekend,” said Wilson. “I had a slow start on Friday but the next two days more than made up for it. We put ourselves under pressure stalling on the long stage on Sunday and losing ten seconds, but that meant we went into the last stage with the pressure back on Ogier. We were three seconds up with a few kilometres to go and I think the pressure got to him and he ended up sliding off just before the end. This signifies a big step forward for me; we pushed hard during the weekend but we were always well within our limits and that’s really encouraging.”

After crashing his Ford Focus on the road section before the first stage, Wilson’s team-mate Henning Solberg did all he could on Saturday and Sunday to salvage something positive from Cyprus. Top six finishes on all three of the final day’s stages meant he managed to grab a manufacturer’s point for finishing 18th.

“It was a very disappointing start to the rally but things obviously got better,” said the Norwegian. “It was difficult with all the mud on the stages and sometimes it was hard to keep the car on the road. The most important thing was to score points for the team and maintain my fourth place in the drivers’ standings.”

Team principal Malcolm Wilson said: “What a great drive from Matthew, he has shown true grit and put in a really determined performance. He has demonstrated maturity, especially when the fight was on with Ogier, and this is definitely a product of the long term plan we have. It goes to show that finishing rallies and gaining experience of the stages is really working for him. With Henning backing him up, it’s been another strong team performance for Stobart; the hard work by the mechanics in getting Henning’s car back in the rally has paid off.”

Source:
http://www.wrc.com