Australia Fighting Talk: Part 1
Our first selection of quotes from the WRC drivers
Cold-blooded Aussie welcome for WRC stars
Some of the stars of the WRC enjoyed a cold-blooded welcome to the Australian round of the FIA World Rally Championship during a tour of the Coffs Coast on Monday.
For their one day off before preparing for Coates Hire Rally Australia, which starts on Thursday, a group of drivers found themselves face-to-face with a collection of Australian native reptiles including a crocodile and a black-headed python called Leroy.
Later, they headed off the Pacific coast aboard a fishing boat to get a different perspective of the sub-tropical region they will drive through this week
Citroen drivers Mads Ostberg and Kris Meeke, Mikko Hirvonen from M-Sport, Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen from Volkswagen and Hyundai’s Chris Atkinson met the animals at the Sealy Lookout Forest Sky Pier, which overlooks the Coffs Coast amid lush rainforest.
Meeke, Ostberg, Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon, Mikkelsen, Latvala and M-Sport’s Elfyn Evans later boarded the large fishing catamaran Cougar Cat 12. Accompanied by a pod of dolphins, a harbour cruise turned into an offshore excursion as the drivers tried their skills – unsuccessfully – with fishing rods.
The rally will kick off on Thursday with the Coates Hire Rally Show and start from 1300hrs local [CET +8 hours] in the centre of Coffs Harbour. The first of 20 Special Stages covering 313 kilometres over three days starts at 0918hrs on Friday.
