Question: This has probably been the longest break in your career, right?

Nikolay Gryazin: “Yeah, for sure.”

Did you spend it in Latvia or Russia?

“Most of the time I was in Russia and I spent a lot of time with simulators, but I didn’t do any training in reality.”

How much does driving in simulator helps for real life rally?

“For example, I play RBR (Richard Burns rally). It helps me a lot. If you pick something else like Dirt 2.0 it’s more like a game. It’s not helping at all. But this old simulator, which I use is quite good for training, moving within a car after jumps and slides. It’s more representative of real life. I was also doing a lot of job with pacenotes with my co-driver, so it’s easier to prepare him for the new races.”

Your co-driver is now Konstantin Alexandrov. Why did you make the change during the break?

“It’s not possible for Yaroslav to come back to European Union from Russia. It’s quite complicated to travel, if you do not have citizenship or visa. Konstantin has his old visa, which gives him permission to cross the border, but for Yaroslav it’s not possible, because government is not issuing visas for people now.”

You already mentioned simulator work. What would you say is the biggest difference between simulator and real-life racing? Anything you can’t learn from it?

“First of all, you don’t feel fear and what the real speed is. You can push and don’t feel any problems, but in real life driving 170-180 km/h can make you feel nervous. If you have some problems with your pacenotes you lift the pedal, but in simulator it’s hard to represent fear and adrenaline from the real life. Then again, it’s quite representative with setups, because it really works the same. I was using real life setups in the game as well. Of course, sometimes gravel is quite slippery in real life. Some little things are not absolutely the same, but from all the simulators RBR was perfect for me.”

Your first rally after the break was Rally Rokiškis. It was probably good for getting into rhythm and feel the real car again?

“For sure, yes. After this long break we did one test day before Rally Rokiškis, just to feel how it goes. I cannot say I am fully in a good shape, but it was enough to have a good Rally Rokiškis.”

Why do you think you are not in the best shape yet? Was it too short and you need more time?

“I cannot say I’m used to drive with Hyundai. I did not have many training days with this car. During races it’s difficult to feel the car, because in WRC your aim is to finish. If you start to push, you don’t know what to expect from the car, but during tests I can push from the first run. That’s why I’m still not in a good shape. I still feel like struggling a little bit. But it will be fine after more tests.”

What would you say are the biggest differences between Hyundai and Škoda you used before?

“It’s different. I cannot say which things are better and which are worse, but they behave differently on setup changes. I need to feel the car, but after we make the right setups, this car can get much better.”

The fact that they are behaving differently probably makes you more complete driver compared to if you were driving the same car all the time?

“Yes, for sure, it’s a new challenge for me to understand how to drive this car. Being a factory driver means I have to be more responsible for the team. You need to be really fast, but you start to feel nerves. When you have your private team, you can have mistakes and it’s no problem as long as you are learning. When you are in factory team, you don’t have much chance for a mistake. If you are rookie in the team, it’s easier for them to fire you, but if you are premium guy, you can play with them a bit more.”

Can you say that this season is all about providing good and consistent results so the team listens more and gives you more chances, right?

“Yeah, it’s not good if you are only consistent, because you can be slow. It’s much better if you are doing fast stages and show you can win and reach finish. We need to understand, where we need to show our pace, where we need to be safe and play with that, because you can push every stage, crash, and they will say “Goodbye”. But reaching finish every time, while being in a bad position – that is also not good.”

So far in Rally Liepāja you have been very fast and successful winning it two times. Why do you think this rally suits you so well?

“Because of knowledge of this surface. I can’t say I know all the stages, because I am not doing too many tests. When I started driving R5 car, we were not so fast, but after we made setup changes, I started to feel the surface. It’s the main reason, why it’s possible for me to drive fast in Liepāja, Lithuania and Estonia, as it’s quite similar. If you know how to do it on this type of surface, it’s easier to push more.”

This year you have very tough competition with drivers like Craig Breen, Mads Østberg and Oliver Solberg, Alexey Lukyanuk. Do you this experience will help you against them?

“They also have a good experience. Solberg also has driven a lot in Liepāja just like me. For sure, I cannot say if we will be winning or not, but it will be interesting. It depends how the car is prepared. If we do not have any issues or mistakes, it could be a good fight. We will see after the first stages what is our pace, because I cannot say I’m prepared very well, but I am starting to feel confident with the car, so we will see. Our target is to enjoy the race and to understand how to improve the car.”

Two years ago, you won the ERC Junior championship here in Liepāja. Is this the best memory from your rally career so far?

“For me it’s one of the biggest highlights, because we missed Azores and good result in Rome was taken away from us due to technical issue, but I had good results in all of the other three races. We managed to take first place in all of them. The main target was to be ahead of Junior U28 rivals. When I started to race, it was also important to finish without any problems, because stages on the second day had stones and very narrow sections. When you understand, that this race can cost the championship, you become nervous. For me it definitely was one of the highlight moments, because I was thinking about how to reach the finish. We made it and these are good memories.

For me a highlight was also winning Neste Rally Finland. It was my first time on such roads and fortune was on our side. Team did big job, because we lost our trunk during the first stages and had to repair it. We thought it won’t be possible to continue this rally without the trunk, but after repairs we continued. Some mistakes from other drivers handed us the first place.”

Roads in Finland are quite similar to Latvian?

“No, they are not similar at all.”

But the high average speeds are the area where you feel very comfortable, right?

“Yeah, but in Latvia there is much more grip driving with high speed. In Finland it is very tough and you cannot make a mistake, because then you lose grip, go wide, and crash the car. In Latvia you might go through some field, but in Finland you will end up hitting a tree. That’s why here it is easier to drive in the fast sections, because you can have a big slide after the mistake, but the car won’t crash.”

So, you can push a bit more here?

“Yes, especially in the entry of the corner. It’s the main reason, why you can drive so quickly in Latvia.”

What results would make you happy at the end of this rally?

“For me it’s only victory that brings happiness. Anyway, our goal is to work with the car and enjoy. Even if something goes wrong, we will keep working until the end. But for me victory is the only target.”

©Roberts Graudiņš, Rally Liepāja

FIA European Rally Championship round Rally Liepāja is possible thanks to the support provided by the Latvian government, rally city Liepāja, as well as the Talsi region. Thanks to our sponsors Neste, Ramirent, and SC Grupa, our car rental partner Sixt, as well as supporters Canon Business Center – IB Serviss, Liepājas Olimpiskais Centrs, Pafbet, and Swecon. Informative support is provided by DELFI and media partners JCDecaux Latvija, Kurzemes Vārds, Sporta Avīze, Talsu Vēstis, and Zebra. The event would also not be possible without the involvement of all Rally Liepāja friends: Baltic Taxi, Flora, FN Serviss, Fristads, Jānis Pūce, Latvijas Pārtikas Ražotājs, Lofbergs, MB Grupa, Meža Dārzs, Red Bull, SignTech, Sportland, and Törley. Rally Liepāja is taking place with the support of Aizpute, Durbe, Grobiņa and Priekule regions. A special thank you goes out to the Latvian Automobile Federation.