"At the moment it's very exciting to see how the car and set-up perform in competitive conditions," he noted. "Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to show how good the car was in Monte Carlo, but the feeling is good. I hope we have a good chance to get the same result as last year in Sweden. This would just be brilliant as there will be a lot of people I know and a lot of support from Norway. I view this rally just like Rally Japan - as my home event."
Subaru boss, David Lapworth meanwhile is confident that Solberg will be in contention for the win. He also reckons that
Chris Atkinson will go well too in the sister car.
"Petter's goal this year is to win the rally," added Lapworth. "As far as we can tell from the variable conditions in Monte Carlo, we're pleased with the new car's performance. There are so many different factors in that event - tyres, conditions, driver - that it's difficult to draw absolutely objective conclusions about the cars. From what we could see, and from our analysis of split times and knowing who's on which tyre at what time, we think we're very competitive.
"Chris has one year's experience of the rally behind him, but he's not a Scandinavian so he hasn't grown up on snow and ice, and a podium could be asking a lot. He can, nevertheless, make the top six, as he showed last year that he can go fast when conditions are predictable. He can't seriously challenge the experienced Scandinavians, but he will be close."
Manufacturer 2.
OMV Peugeot Norway WRT:
[Manfred Stohl, car #7 and
Henning Solberg, car #8].
The OMV Peugeot Norway WRT will again run cars for Manfred Stohl and Henning Solberg this weekend, after the latter finished fourth in Monte Carlo the team have every reason to be optimistic.
"Fourth place was still a sensational start to the year," said the Austrian. "We got a grip on the Peugeot sooner than we'd thought. Bozian Racing did an excellent job. Though there is always room for some minor adjustments during the next rallies."
