Miklós Csomós: I’d be lying, if I said I didn’t chase my limits in some parts, but overall, I’d say our performance was a strong ninety-percent one. In some places we could have gone faster, but that would have meant a much greater risk. The stages are of ERC-level, which means they are quite difficult: there are narrow and wide sections, with bumpy and quality roads, so they are rally stages to the core, which require a lot of concentration. I planned the first stage in the morning just like that: I wanted to push it because I knew it suited me and I knew the “gritty” spots, where to watch out. After that, we just continued to drive at our own pace. We slipped a bit on the white tarmac at the end of Aranyosvölgy, but we came back out of the ditch easily, with having a bit of luck there. There will definitely be a lot of gravel on the second round, and we will have to be very careful to avoid punctures, of which there were quite a few in the first round.
Ferenc Vincze: The first round went well, I think we are quite fast, we have surprised ourselves a little bit. Before the race our goal was to finish in the top five, and now we are fighting for second place, even though we had some small mistakes from my side and Nándi’s side. So, this could be much better! The tracks are quite difficult, we are exhausted by the end of each one. In the championship I focused for the result, now I want to enjoy racing, and I want to go as fast as our health condition allows, because unfortunately, we both got sick a few days ago.
Mads Ostberg: We hit the front of the car hard on SS2 and I think something must have been damaged by that big impact, because I felt the car was losing power all the time. We are driving on difficult stages but we have a good rhythm and we are having a fierce battle with Vincze. Of course, it would be better to fight with Csomós, but he is very fast now. We’ll see what we can do in the second round.
Frigyes Turán: On SS2 the gap was bigger than we thought, which, to tell you the truth, I don’t really understand. I was very focused on the following stage to avoid a puncture and after that everything was fine. We’re in eighth place, which I’m happy with, but we’re trying to get faster for the next round and we’ll have to change the set-up a bit. I tried to increase the pace, and this was all I could do now. I take my hat off for the pace of the two Hungarian guys on top.
András Hadik. We are from Miskolc, so for us these are home stages, we like them very much. We don’t push the pace too much, we don’t want to take too many risks, for us this race is not about that, it’s about having fun. We put medium tyres on for the first round, we were even driving reasonable times, now we’ll put some harder tyres on and see what happens.
Martin László: Unfortunately, I could not find the rhythm I wanted. I felt I was a bit out of focus on the first round, which was reflected in my times. The car is fine, the problem is with me now, but I’ll try to sort it out for the second round.
Erik Cais: We had a jump on the first stage today and from then on, the intercom didn’t work, so my co-driver had to gesture the corners – we got seventeen some seconds, which could have been worse. After that, we did quite well and won the city stage. We’re moving forward step by step, we’re already fourth, we’ll see what happens in the second round.
Norbert Michelisz: Apart from two small mistakes, everything was fine. In one corner I turned with the handbrake on, spun and broke down, but as having my first race I think it’s not bad at all. It’s still a bit strange to me that someone is talking to me all the time – I was really panicked by the experience in our first test. In the slower corners I can process all the information I get, but in the fast parts I often just trust my eyes and my senses, and try not to take any risks. Rallying is completely different from circuit racing, there is absolutely no room for error on these narrow forest roads.