“When you look at some of Petter's split times when the conditions are good, you can see that the performance is there. Effectively when you look at it he's in third place really – that's easily within his grasp – and then he's not so far away from the other two either. Things could happen.”

Turning his attentions to Chris Atkinson in the sister Impreza WRC, Lapworth joked that the Australian had been 'shaken but not too badly stirred' by his fiery roll early into the first run through Walters Arena on Friday evening, following which he had been taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

“He's okay,” Lapworth affirmed, confessing that his charge had simply been 'going too fast for the conditions'. “He's got a few bruises and a bit of a black eye and so on, but he's in good spirits. He was down here quite early for a coffee this morning and he's fine.

“It was a very, very difficult place, much slipperier than he expected – not typical of the conditions on the Gold Coast! I think it just caught him out, and after a big accident like that he can't remember what happened anyway.”

by Russell Atkins