M-Sport quotes:

Elfyn Evans (4th +penalty) said:

"It was all going really well this morning. I didn't have a great feeling with the set-up, but it was good to see that the times were coming so naturally, even without a perfect feeling in the car. Then at the end of the stage we had a warning light appear on the dash and the car stopped on the liaison back to service. We had no choice but to push the car into regroup, which wasn't easy!

"It's obviously very disappointing but I think that we can be encouraged by the times we were able to set. There's still a long way to go, so we just need to continue as we have and try to claw back as many points as possible."

Robert Kubica (7th) said:

"It's been an okay morning – we've been driving smoothly with no mistakes. The first two stages were quite slippery so it was hard to believe how much grip there was in the last one [SS3]. The tyres were up to temperature and everything worked well."

Mikko Hirvonen (8th) said:

"I was struggling with the tyres quite a lot and the set-up wasn't quite right. The car is over-steering a lot so we need to make some changes to make it [the set-up] similar to what it was in Germany as I was much happier with the car there. Hopefully then we can have better pace."

Dennis Kuipers (11th) said:

"It took a while to get used to the new tyres this morning as we didn't have the opportunity to do a lot of testing with them, but the rhythm is coming and I was pleased with the driving on the last stage [of the morning, SS3]"

Yuriy Protasov (12th WRC) said:

"This morning has been an okay morning for us. We want to build on our speed throughout the weekend, but we have made no mistakes and taken no risks, which is the most important thing for the moment."

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Why didn't Mikko have the Germany set-up to begin with?