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.

Pozzo finished second last time out in Ireland and now lies 9 points behind Toshi Arai, who cannot add to his 39-point tally this weekend as he has already taken in all of his six nominated events.

Pozzo is likely to face fierce opposition though, not least from Mark Higgins, who looked set to win in Ireland until he rolled on the final stage on day 2 after picking up a puncture. Higgins though will have to bear in mind his BRC title aspirations and that may compromise him somewhat.