How was it working with and competing against a rally and rallycross legend in Petter Solberg as your team-mate?

I had really high expectations for working with Petter and his team but I have to say that Petter himself over delivered on my expectations. He helped me so much with a lot of things, I’ve learnt so much from him during the whole season and he is a big factor why I won the championship.

What was your highlight of 2017?

Of course when I wrapped up the championship in Riga, but also winning my home event. I’ve been going to Holjes since I was young and this was the fifth time I went there trying to win it. In the past I didn’t have any success there at all, so this year to have a weekend where everything just worked my way was really good.

As an unemotional guy, how surprised were you at becoming emotional after securing the title in Latvia?

I couldn’t imagine how the feeling would be. I think I was most affected by seeing the people around me, how happy they were. I saw in others that this means a lot and then I understood.

How special was it to win an unprecedented five events in a row, seven in total and 10 podiums from 12 events?

Now I understand a little bit more when I look back. During the season I didn’t think about it at all, I was just focusing on what I was doing. It was outrageous; it should not be possible to win five in a row, it definitely should not be possible to win seven races and 100% not possible to make 10 podiums out of 12. Even for myself it’s hard to understand how I did it, it’s just incredible. The team gave me all the tools to do it. From myself, after winning three I didn’t arrive to the fourth and fifth race with the goal to win. I would go and take no risks and really focus on the event itself, not only on winning. Of course the team came well prepared for every race, me and Petter had a good plan. We did the homework.

Could you have won the STCC title if you had competed in the full season?

I believe so. I like the touring cars. Rallycross is a sport where the cars are very extreme but touring cars, with the TCR regulations, are not the most extreme cars to drive. For me it doesn’t matter. One weekend I drove the Polo which is a super-extreme car, then the next I drove more-or-less a road car with bigger brakes and slick tyres. What I enjoy is to find the key to perform the best and win the race I’m in. That’s what drives me.

How difficult it is to switch from a rallycross Supercar to a touring car in consecutive weekends?

2011 was the first year that I started to do it, then I drove in Porsche Carrera Cup and touring cars on the same weekend. That was really tricky, but I’ve learned ways to handle it so it’s no problem at all.