Subaru completed their pre-event preparations for the Rallye Deutschland this week, the ninth round in the 2006
FIA WRC, which runs from August 11-13 and which marks the beginning of the second half of the season following the long summer break.
The Banbury-based squad ran for four days in total, using three different tarmac roads in Germany, each representative of the event.
Subaru number one driver,
Petter Solberg kicked off proceedings last Friday [July 21], with the Norwegian and his co-driver, Phil Mills in action for two and a half days in total.
On day one a 3.8 kilometre tarmac road was utilised and while it was dirtier than the usual vineyard rally stages, it was still said to be representative. On day two, 'Hollywood' and Mills switched to a 6 km section, which was faster with many long corners.
Following a rest-day on Sunday, Stephane Sarrazin and Stephane Prevot took over on Monday [July 26], the Frenchman getting behind the wheel of the Impreza from around mid-day. Once again a vineyard road was used, before the programme came to a close on Tuesday, Sarrazin and Prevot going back to the same 3.8 km road as was used by Solberg and Mills on day one.
In total the Subaru WRT managed around 450 kilometres, something that should hopefully aid their cause, as they were less competitive than they would have liked on the previous two tarmac events in Spain and France earlier this year.
"The focus was on finding the set-up for Germany," a spokesperson for the SWRT told
Crash.net. "The weather was dry on day one, three and four but there was heavy rain in the afternoon on day two. Petter and Stephane were both pleased with the findings from the test."
Subaru's preparations now shift to focusing on the Rally Finland, which is a gravel event and which immediately follows the round in Germany - their pre-Finland test is scheduled to run from August 1-4.
