“It’s going to be a big attack from the first metre of the rally: it’s as simple as that,” he stated. “It’s the final round of the championship and there’s nothing to lose. I hope it will be good old-fashioned Rally GB weather, with lots of mud on the stages. Those would be the best conditions for me. Our tyres have always been very competitive on the event and the team has lots of experience of how to deal with the tricky conditions.
“We always have a lot of support on the rally, especially with Phil [Mills – my co-driver] living close by, so it would be fantastic to end the year with a good finish.”
Chris Atkinson meanwhile will be out to try and notch up his first decent result on the Rally GB in the sister car, after having made his debut on the Welsh event in 2005. Atkinson began the Rally GB brightly last year and was running sixth overall until the first stage on Saturday, when he went off the road and was unable to re-join. Although he managed to re-start under the SupeRally regulations on the Sunday and eventually brought his Impreza WRC car to the finish, he was way down the order, as a result of his off on day two and was classified in 38th position. That experience should help him this time out however, even though the event has now switched back to it traditional winter slot on the calendar.
“I contested Rally GB for the first time last season, but with the date change I’m expecting conditions to be quite different this year,” he noted. “Last year there was a little bit of mud at the start, but the stages were dry on the second leg. This year there will probably be ice and fog, which will make it tricky. It won’t be a completely new experience for me though, because I’ve done winter rallies in places like Tasmania before, where the conditions were similar.”
Atkinson and his team-mate,
Petter Solberg were both in mid-Wales over the weekend - focusing on the team's four-day gravel tyre test with Pirelli, which came to a close on Sunday.
Manufacturer 2.
OMV Peugeot Norway WRT:
[Manfred Stohl, car #7 and
Henning Solberg, car #8].
OMV Peugeot’s Manfred Stohl has set his sights on finishing on the podium on the Rally GB, to add to the ones he notched up in Mexico, Australia and NZ.
