Subaru will be looking at unlocking more potentialThe Subaru teams's efforts in New Zealand were rewarded by a fourth-place finish for Chris Atkinson following a long battle with the Stobart Teams's Jari-Matti Latvala.
For his third rally with the team, Xevi Pons
found himself in a position where he was sweeping the roads during the morning of the second leg. The slippery and loose gravel on top contributed in sending his Impreza off-road, thereby ending his participation in the event.
Petter Solberg found himself somewhere in-between as he completed the race after much aggravation. The handling of his car had been problematic since the beginning of the rally with differential and traction issues causing the car to be very unstable. Most of the quirks seemed to have been ironed out by Sunday morning however, as Solberg became very competitive, kept pace, and reached seventh position overall.
Team Managing Director Richard Taylor recognizes that Solberg's Impreza still needs to be tweaked as similar issues had appeared during the previous rally in Germany, hindering his progress there also.
"It was disappointing that Petter could only begin to fight on (the) last part of the rally," he said. "It's clear that the package is not working for him, and we need to work to help him become competitive with the car."
The Subaru team has planned its schedule in consequence: "We have more development work ahead of us now, with asphalt and gravel tests planned in September. There is still more performance to unlock in the WRC2007."
"We're looking forward to the next round in Spain," Taylor concluded.
