Ten questions
to: Evgeny
Novikov

He's fast, young, Russian and fearless - but he's known best for one thing only and that is the jump of the century, over the rollercoaster crests of Rally Finland in 2009 in a Citroen C4 WRC.

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Now he’s back: slightly older, a little bit wiser, but just as spectacular. He’s doing six rallies this year in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC, plus maybe France and Germany. Next year he’s aiming for a full programme.

Describe yourself in one word?
“Never give up. That’s three words though. Okay, determined.”

Do you believe in God?
“For sure.”

Can you cook an omelette?
“Of course. But I don’t remember the last time that I did.”

What’s the worst place you’ve ever been to?
“When I was younger I spent a lot of time in Italy karting. Some of the karting tracks we went to there were pretty terrible places.”

How well did you do at school?
“I was quite good. I wasn’t the best but certainly not the worst either.”

What’s the most irritating thing about your co-driver?
“I had a Russian co-driver when I did the Estonian championship and I just had to score some points on the last rally to win the championship. Unfortunately, we crashed: it was my fault. But my co-driver hit his head on the rollcage and that made him a bit strange. He wandered off into the forest with his crash helmet on and got lost so we all had to go looking for him, like looking for a lost dog. I shouldn’t laugh, but it was definitely funny.”

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