Now the Belgian will want to impress again and if his record in Spain is anything to go by - he was sixth last year in a privately entered Skoda Fabia WRC and second in 2005 - the signs are he should definitely be a real contender for another podium place.
“I am very happy that I was offered this opportunity,” said the OMV Kronos
Citroen WRT driver, who has also been confirmed for Corsica next weekend as well. “It proves that success is being rewarded.
“I hope that I will be able to return the favour by reaching further top results,” he added.
Manfred Stohl meanwhile will drive the #5 Kronos-run Xsara WRC as normal and after technical problems in the last three events the Austrian will be hoping for a change of luck.
Spain hasn’t always been kind to Manfred though and following his crash in testing last year it made the event doubly difficult for him and his co-driver, Ilka Minor: “Each time we cut the corners last year Ilka’s and my own ribs hurt like hell, which made it very hard to focus on driving,” he explained.
“But despite that I really like it in Spain and you can’t compare this rally to the WRC event in Germany. The grip should be much stronger here and that definitely suits us,” he concluded.
Subaru WRT:
[
Petter Solberg, car #7 and
Chris Atkinson, car #8 4 [and Xavier Pons, car #14 - not nominated for manufacturers’ points]]
Petter ‘hoping’ for good result.
Petter Solberg has confirmed that the Banbury-based outfit has made more progress with the Impreza WRC car following a ‘generally’ positive pre-event test for this weekend’s Rally Catalunya.
Solberg and Subaru have struggled again this season, but despite that ‘Hollywood’ is still feeling pretty bullish ahead of the twelfth round in the WRC, especially as the car was pretty competitive in Germany back in August, the last tarmac event.
“The asphalt test last week in Spain was generally positive for us and gave us the chance to continue development of our asphalt performance,” he explained.
