Subaru sporting director, Luis Moya has made a bold prediction following the Rally Argentina - and he reckons there is no reason why they shouldn't win the next two gravel events in the
FIA World Rally Championship, coming up in Sardinia and Greece.
Petter Solberg finished second on Sunday and while he was 45 seconds off event winner,
Sebastien Loeb at the finish, the Norwegian had a number of 'issues' throughout the event that cost him time, including two 10 second penalties. He also lost time on day two with a wrong tyre choice and a gear lever problem, something combined with a few other problems, accounted for at least a good proportion of Loeb's advantage.
"I think it's been a good weekend," summed up Moya. "We got two cars to the end and got some good points for Petter in the Drivers' Championship.
"One of the most important things for me was the reliability of the cars. You know, we had no major problems whatsoever in the whole event and that's what we're looking for. We're going to two very tough rallies now in Italy and Greece, they're going to be very hard and this result encourages the team a lot. I'm also pleased with the work that Pirelli has done, the tyres have been working very well in tricky conditions - particularly on the second day. We've proved now that we have the speed on this surface and I see no reason why we can't win the next two events - that's our goal."
Chris Atkinson meanwhile finished sixth, picking up a place in the final stage, when
Henning Solberg was forced out with a clutch problem. However the Aussie still felt he could have done better. Indeed without the 1 minute penalty he picked up at the end of day two, for speeding in the service park, he would have been easily ahead Daniel Sordo, who took fifth.
"It's been a difficult rally for us, it started out quite well, we were running in a high position early on, but then some problems with the car and a mistake from me cost us a lot of time. We struggled back up the order and then got a minute penalty – if it wasn't for that, I think we could have been fighting for a much better result," he moaned. "But that's life, we learned a lot here and we'll see what we can do in Sardinia."
