Martin gives Subaru Impreza WRC2008 its first win

Markko Martin Q&A

How was competitive rallying again?

It was good. I did this event for the right reasons. Driving the Subaru with Robert [Reid] co-driving was the only way to do it. It was good to see so many people out there spectating, I hope we gave them a good time.

Were you worried about the competition?

This was an amateur event and we were a professional world rally team. Without taking anything away from any of the other drivers, we should have won this event. The only thing which I did wonder about was the tyres. We were running on the Pirelli control tyre, we used the hard and the soft compound, but that’s a control tyre - it’s not a race tyre. I thought this might have been a bit of a handicap, but it was fine.

Could you take anything from the event for the forthcoming rounds of the World Rally Championshuip in Catalunya or Corsica?

Not really. This event was really quite removed from those two rallies. I guess there were some sections which were quite similar to Germany, but that’s already passed - so it’s not so much use.

Did you make many changes to the car during the event?

We did play around with some of the settings.

Did you have any problems?

No. Not at all. The car was perfect for the whole event, it was great to drive it again - and it was great to have Robert co-driving.

Did he cause you any problems?

No, he was very good - like I knew he would be.

Will you come back to this event again?

Yes I would, but I would like to see a few more people coming along. It was a lot of fun for Robert and I, but we could make it more fun by driving the same sort of cars that the other drivers were using. This time we used the Subaru and that was absolutely the correct way to do it, but next time it would be great to see some other, older kind of machinery coming out.