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Subaru impressed with Atkinson |
Subaru team boss David Richards has hailed the 'maturity' of his number two driver Chris Atkinson, following last weekend's Rally Argentina.
Atkinson eventually took the runners-up spot on the South American event, but on the second day opted to play the team game, rather than try and battle it out with his team-mate, Petter Solberg.
Atkinson slipped down to third on the opening test on Saturday morning when he was overhauled by 'Hollywood' and while he lost out again in SS11, something that saw the margin increased to 9.1 seconds, Chris cut it back to 7.4 seconds in SS12, before taking more time back in SS13, when he the topped the times.
Going into the repeat loop in the afternoon just 4.1 seconds separated them, but Chris mindful of the fact the Banbury-based outfit was on course for a 2-3 result, something it hasn't managed since the Wales Rally GB back in 2003, opted not to try and fight with Petter.
In the end while he still took P2, after electrical problems sidelined the sister car on the final day, his attitude didn't go unnoticed.
"I'm really impressed with the maturity of Chris' decision not take any big risks and focus on scoring crucial points for the team," confirmed Richards.
Atkinson meanwhile noted that there had been no team orders and that he had just opted to back off a bit and not take any risks to try and ensure he got to the end in Carlos Paz.
"There were not decisions made or anything. But you know that you don't want to crash especially when you're in a safe position," he continued. "Petter has better experience than me on these roads and I took the decision to slow down and to be more conservative. That was my decision and at the end it didn't affect my result.
"I sort of decided my day will come in the future. I didn't have the best feeling; he seemed to have a better feeling than me on Saturday. That was fine with me, obviously I would have like to beat him but the most important thing was that it was a good result for the team."
