Nicolas Bernardi gave the SX4 WRC car its maiden outing in the WRC on the all-asphalt Rallye de France-Tour de Corse back in October and now fellow tester Sebastian Lindholm will drive the car in Wales, what will be another new challenge, as it will be its first competitive outing on the loose.
Like in Corsica though, Suzuki’s main objective will be to get to the finish and bring back the maximum amount of data as it gears up for its first full season at the top level in 2008.
Speaking ahead of the event, Lindholm, who is a seven-time Finnish Rally champion, confirmed that he will take things sensibly, especially as the last time he did Rally GB was back in 1998.
“I feel very pleased that I’m going to create a bit of history by driving the SX4 WRC on its first gravel rally,” he noted. “So far, our performance in testing has been promising but there’s still quite a lot of work to do and that is why we are here on Rally GB.
“I like the car a lot, but I can think of some ways to improve it further and I will be trying those ideas out on the rally. It’s been a little while since I have competed on this event, so I am going to make sure we get to the finish above everything else.
“I always have a very good feeling on gravel and I am sure we will do a lot of useful work here. That will be the key thing, rather than the overall result,” he added.
Suzuki World Rally Team boss, Nobuhiro Tajima meanwhile is aware that GB is likely to be another steep learning curve, however he feels confident that the team is making progress step-by-step.
“Our mission in Great Britain will be exactly the same as it was in Corsica: to bring the car home in order to learn as much as we can for the future development of the SX4 WRC,” he continued.
“If anything, gravel is an even bigger challenge than asphalt: we do not have so much experience on this surface with the car and the surfaces are a lot harder to predict. Wales Rally GB is a very difficult event.
“Sebastian must be careful and accumulate as much data as possible for us this is the aim!”
Production Car WRC:
Pozzo still in contention.
Gabriel Pozzo could win the
FIA Production Car World Rally Championship title this weekend
providing he takes the victory.
