Petter Solberg has thanked Citroen after he got the opportunity to trade in his aging Xsara WRC and switch to a C4 WRC for the final two rounds in this year's World Rally Championship.

Solberg, who was of course left in the lurch at the end of last season when Subaru canned its WRC programme, formed his own team to continue competing at the pinnacle of the sport and despite having to do that at very short notice, he still managed to take in all but two of this year's events.

Indeed 'Hollywood' ended the season a commendable fifth in the drivers' championship, having notched up 35 points in total - and taken 12 stage wins.

In total he was in the points on seventh occasions, including finishing fourth on the Rally of Great Britain on Sunday, no mean feat, especially given it was his first competitive outing with the C4 on the loose.

"I am very pleased with the result here. The car worked good, and considering I didn't test in wet conditions, the weekend has been fantastic," said the 2003 World Rally champion, who actually ran under the Citroen Junior Team banner in Wales.

"I've been improving the whole weekend, and we had some really fast splits at the end. I want to thank Citroen for giving me this opportunity, and my fantastic team for their effort. The Citroen C4 WRC is a super car and we've made a lot of progress with it throughout the rally.

"It was too bad we were so unlucky on Saturday [and had a windscreen wiper problem], and I tried really hard today to beat [Dani] Sordo [and take the final spot on the podium], but it just wasn't enough. He drove a fantastic rally."

Citroen Junior Team manager, Benoit Nogier, meanwhile was impressed by Solberg's pace, the Norwegian having posted top-five times in every single stage - including three second best efforts and six thirds.

"The icing on the cake for the Citroën Junior Team was the presence of Petter Solberg in Britain. He showed his talent by fighting for a podium all the way to the finish," Nogier added.