Sebastien Ogier reveals that he found difficult the roads in Belgium to deal with explaining that the rain and the dust changed the grip levels a lot.
Although starting first οn tarmac events would be an advantage, the French driver faced difficulties during the stages on Friday as the grip levels was changing a lot and he did not feel comfortable to push.
For this reason in combination with the lack of experience he had with these roads, he was losing time in comparioson with Hyundai drivers who had been particated there in the past.
"Before the start, the drivers who knew it warned us that opening the road could be a daunting task, but I’ve never experienced anything like it in my career and had no idea it would be so severe", Ogier said.
"The first passes on the stages through the fields were difficult.
"After these last weeks of rain, the passing of tractors had brought a lot of mud onto the road.
"When it was dried by the sun it turned into a layer of dust that made the asphalt much more slippery than what we expected for the first runs.
"The second passes went much better, but it was very hard to make up the time lost".
Finally, Ogier highlights the fact that his team was not well-prepared for this event, but they did some adjustments to the car's set-up throughout the weekend: "It didn’t allow us an optimal preparation.
"We nevertheless worked a lot on the car’s set-up and we made the necessary adjustments so that I had a better feeling as the weekend progressed and we got back up to the pace of the best cars".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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