Manfred Stohl will now focus on securing the best drive possible for the future after bringing the curtain down on a disappointing World Rally Championship campaign in Wales.

The OMV Kronos driver proved unable to match the kind of results he achieved last season having switched from the Peugeot 307 to the Citroen Xsara for 2007.

For the Welsh weekend, the focus was very much on bringing home a points finish and the 35-year-old was able to do just that as he took eighth - although it was a world away from his podium finish twelve months earlier.

With the backing of OMV now at an end, it remains to be seen as to where Stohl will compete next season and he admitted that it had been a campaign that failed to hit the heights that had been expected.

"Unfortunately nothing went as we had hoped for right from the beginning," he said. "During the second half of the season it was additionally very hard to motivate oneself. This season cost a lot of energy. But I still will try my all to be able to pursue my career next year, as well.

"[Scoring a point] was very important to me since I didn't want to have bad memories of my favourite rally. It was only unfortunate that we couldn't take advantage of the conditions here for whatever reasons."