Hirvonen meanwhile also isn’t looking forward to the prospect of driving in thick fog. Despite that though, he is determined to try and take his second win, and having notched up eight podium finishes in the last nine events, he is extremely confident.
"There will be no pressure through having to score points so I'm looking forward to giving it a real go and driving as fast as I can,” said the 26-year-old, who has competed on the Rally GB three times to date. “The stages in Wales are good but it's not an easy event in which to bring the car home to the finish because of the conditions. In the dry the stages are quite simple but in December we can expect temperatures below zero with ice and fog. Fog is the worst. The roads are so fast that when it's foggy you can't see well.
"I will try to win but I know that to do that I need to beat Marcus at least. I hope that I can match his pace and put pressure on him through the whole weekend."
BP Ford team director, Malcolm Wilson has told both drivers’ that they can just go for it: “The game plan is completely different to what it has been for the rest of the season,” Wilson Sr told
Crash.net Radio last week. “I agree with both drivers’ that they can go and enjoy themselves and go and drive exactly as they want, with no team orders, in any shape or form. I think it is going to be a very exciting rally because Mikko has basically being playing the perfect number two role for most of the season. He has got the brakes off now and it will be interesting to see what happens.”
Subaru World Rally Team:
[
Petter Solberg, car #5 and
Chris Atkinson, car #6.]
Petter Solberg has promised to push to the maximum on the Rally GB this weekend. Although Petter had a disappointing outing in New Zealand two weeks ago, the Norwegian is in a fighting mood ahead of the Welsh event and having won it four times to date, including taking his first ever WRC win in 2002, he knows precisely what it takes to get the job done.
