Subaru have said that while the result on the Rally Mexico this weekend was not ‘perfect', it was a good indication of the potential of the new Impreza WRC 2007.
Indeed
Subaru's
Petter Solberg and
Chris Atkinson were a lot more competitive than they have been of late and both were running well and posting good times, especially on day one.
Furthermore Petter even led the event until he had to retire on the road section to SS6, while 2.8 seconds up on
Sebastien Loeb. Chris Atkinson also went well and eventually finished fifth, to give the 2007 spec car points on its first event.
“Not a perfect result,” said Subaru WRT managing director, Richard Taylor, “but an excellent demonstration of the performance potential of the new car.
“It's at a level we're really pleased with, and this weekend Petter and Chris have both shown that we've got podium pace.
"Of course we've got some fine tuning to do, which is what we always expected, but I think we can expect stronger results in the rest of the season.”
Solberg was also pretty pleased, even though he had to retire on day one. The Norwegian reckons that they will definitely be on the up now and more able to challenge Ford and
Citroen.
“Overall, it's important to note that we had the winning pace, even on the repeated stages, and things like tyre wear and general feeling were very, very good,” he added. “We were leading the rally here, and I'm sure it won't be long before we're doing that again."
