"Cyprus is slower than other rallies and the roads are incredibly rough," he noted. "It's different from other rounds and it isn't my favourite, but we need rallies like this in the championship. A world championship should have something of everything. To be successful the car must be strong and reliable and we proved in Greece that the Focus has those qualities. It will be hot and the speeds slow so it's important to be confident in the cooling package to ensure the car doesn't overheat."
Subaru World Rally Team:
[
Petter Solberg, car #5 and
Chris Atkinson, car #6.]
Petter Solberg has said that the Banbury-based squad are close to finding a solution to the technical issues which have blighted them on recent events. Subaru conducted a six-day pre-event test in Sardinia last week in order to try and improve the competitiveness of the Impreza WRC and while Solberg isn't expecting miracles this weekend, he is impressed with how the team is continuing to push in order to try and turn things around.
Furthermore while 'Hollywood' has gone well in Cyprus in the past and won the event in 2003
en-route to the title, that must now seem like a long time ago, especially given his year to date. Indeed Petter knows that they must get the 'basics right’ first if they are to stand any chance of fighting for the win.
"I like the Cyprus Rally a lot and it’s normally a rally we perform well on; we won in 2003 and also led the last two years’ events," said the Norwegian. "For 2006 however we’ve got to be realistic. Of course I want to win – we all want to win, me, the team, Pirelli, everyone – but we’ve got to get the basics right before we can seriously challenge for victory. The team is working very hard and we’re getting closer to finding a solution to the problems we’ve experienced in recent rallies. Last week they’ve been in Sardinia for a six-day test and everyone at the factory is going flat-out too. We’ve got to keep pushing on."
