Plenty of work to do at SubaruPetter Solberg held on for Subaru to finish sixth on Sardinia while Chris Atkinson pushed on and worked his way up to tenth by the end of the rally. The team are now fourth in the manufacturers' standing with 34 points, three behind the Stobart
Ford team.
Richard Taylor, Managing Director
"We've got to the end of the rally with both cars in the top ten, and with Petter and Chris scoring useful manufacturer championship points. At the same time, it is clear that we still have work to do to achieve consistent podium pace, however our engineers have got very positive ideas on how we can increase the speed of our 2007 car.”
Petter Solberg
"Today was all about making sure we got to the end of the rally and preserving the car for the Rally of Greece in two weeks. The stages on this leg were fast and narrow, so we knew that any mistakes could have cost us heavily. Although there was a chance we could have caught Henning (Solberg) if we went on the attack, we just couldn't afford to take that risk. It's been an up-and-down rally. Once again the pace we've shown at the start of the event has been encouraging for us. The task now is to get to a point where we can maintain that speed throughout the event. There's still some work to do, but we're getting there and the team is working harder than ever.
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Chris Atkinson
"We expected it to be a tough day, but we also saw how important it is to keep plugging away, because we ended up scoring a point for Subaru in the manufacturers championship. Hitting those rocks on SS5 was a big setback for our rally and I'm disappointed in light of the competitive stage times we set on the first morning. Those times were a clear sign of this car's potential, because both myself and Petter were setting top-four times at one point. Now we'll get our heads down and try to get the car right for Rally of Greece.”
Didier Martin, BFGoodrich tyre technician
"It was a very tough rally for everyone involved with the team, but both cars made it to the finish. I think the most important thing to look at is how the Subaru seems to work well on our new hard compound tyre. That bodes well for Rally of Greece, where we expect conditions to be very rough and particularly demanding for the tyres.”
Source SWRT
