Driver / co-driver: Pontus Tidema𝄹𝕴nd and Emil Axelsson (Skoda Fabia R5).

Press conference

Q:
Pon𓆉tus, congratulations on the win - you were so dominant on the gravel. Did you expect that?

Pontus Tidemand:
Firstly, big congratulations to Nasser [Al-Attiyah] and Mathieu [Baumel - after retaining the WRC2 title] - that's an impressive result. But yes, on Friday it was a good start for us. To be honest,𒊎 it was better than we expected from the first stage. But doing the Asia Pacific Championship has given us a lot of experience on a lot of different surfaces. It was not so easy, but we had good training to give us good practice for the Friday.

Q:
Esapekka Lappi came here looking for the title, but you got into t🐽he lead - that must have felt good?

Pontus Tidemand:
Yes, of course. After Corsica when we went off the road, the feeling was not so good. This was good revenge and th🦩e team and engineers are happy. This is good for the confidence for the future. The feeling now is reallyꩵ good. We fly to China for the final APRC round with a good feeling for the long plane trip.

Q:
You had a shot at the title, are you disap✃pointed?

Pontus Tidemand:
Yes, but to be honest I was not thinking too much about this. If it should be like t🐠his then we could go to GB and I nee🌌ded a good performance there as well. Hopefully we get a full [WRC 2] season next year and it will all work well. There's really good co-operation in the team, we just need to keep working now.

Q:
Is WRC 2 the plan for next season?

Pontus Tidemand:
🐻I don't know. We will see, I hope so. I think it would be a good programme.

Q:
Emil, how does that feel?

Emil Axelsson:
It was good, it would have been even nicer to continue th💦e championship, but we must be happy when we look at🌟 our speed on the first loop - that was good. We need to keep that in mind.

Q:
And happy with the tarmac?

Emil Axelsson:
We should be, we got the mileage and we know where we can impr𒀰♔ove. We know what to work on.

Q:
This has been a good year for you...

Emil Axelsson:
Absolutely. ꦐExcept four races, we have been on the podium and tonight we go to China for another chance to shine with Skoda.