*The Lancer X of the Tiger Express Rallisport team comes to a halt after the Lyon-Gerland stage as RDRC star commentator Roy Magnes approaches the car*
RM: "David! We've just seen you nearly crashing into the finish tent! Have the two special stages been tough for you?"
DJ: "Not really, no. Although the first run on wet tyres felt a bit more shaky, especially going through the chicane in the middle. But otherwise, I quite like such special stages."
RM: "The difficult weather conditions over the last days have caught out some drivers. Did you struggle to pick the right tyres&setup?"
DJ: "Well, the second half of Day 1 was the trickiest. We had 4 stages, two dry stages and 2 that were wet and damp. As I was worried we could slide off the stage, I opted to go with wet tarmac tyres with more profile. It went quite well on Puy du Lac, and Cote D'Abroz was quite good with the right tyre choice. But then, it went wrong at Joux Plane..."
RM: "What happened?"
*DJ's female Co-Driver Saki Miyazaki explains*
SM: "We had a nice run there in the damp conditions until we got to a corner that was a bit tighter than we had remembered in the pace note. We understeered to the wall, the car went sideways along the wall and we slided on the side down the road and into a tree. When we got back up, our battery was too damaged to get enough drive to continue. We were already 83% through the stages, and we lost around 4 minutes. It was quite devasting to lose such precious time when we were going strong without much danger to crash."
RM: "That's really bad luck. Were there any other breath-taking moments?"
DJ: "My second run through Bisanne was quite spectacular I have to say. Once or twice, I was just before losing the car because I was pushing a bit more. I had two or three moments where I had to countersteer and instantly stop my car from snatching away into the green underground."
SM: "You should have seen him taking hairpins. Some were the failure or funny."
DJ: "Stop gossipping, Saki."
SM: "It's true though."
DJ: *Okayface*
RM: "Overall, are you happy with your result? We can pretty much call this your home rally as we're not that far from the Swiss border, it's the Rally Mont Blanc after all."
DJ: "Apart from the unnecessary or rather unlucky retirement at Joux Plane, it was quite good. Some other drivers seemed to fly though, I doubt taking a stage win in the Production-Class, but I'd be delighted if I had done enough to take one ahead of Norbert Serban or Graham Bridgett. I shouldn't be too sad, I surely scored some good and vital points in the fight for the Top 3 in the P-RDRC with this performance. In the end, I really enjoyed the first tarmac rally of the season. I prefer stages that are twisty and technical to those that require more top speed and the right eye when to brake."
RM: What do you expect after this rally?"
DJ: "Well, I can't tell, but I still hope we can finish under the Top 5 in the Production Class, I really pushed after my mishap. See you at the Ulster Rally".
RM: "Thank you David."
*The Evo X drives away towards the service parc*