Pons to be dropped by Subaru?

Xavier Pons will not compete on the Rallye Monte Carlo, the opening round in the 2008 FIA World Rally Championship.

The Spaniard, who joined the Subaru World Rally Team back in the summer, was meant to take in all 15-rounds next season however, it now appears that won't be the case.

Indeed Xevi will definitely not compete at the Principality, as he has not been included on the provisional entry list, which shows only Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson in Impreza WRC cars run by the Banbury-based concern.

"We are still in negotiations with Xavier and the nature of the deal with him and how many rallies he will do [in 2008] has yet to be finalised," a spokesperson for the SWRT told Crash.net when asked about the matter.

Whether Pons will actually do any WRC events now with Subaru is uncertain.

Xavier, who took in all the events in the second half of the year, scored just 4 points in '07, notching up his best finish on his debut event in Finland, when he brought his car home in sixth place overall.

Other than that, his best results were two ninth places, in Spain and GB and an eighth place finish in France. He failed to finish on his other four outings - crashing out in New Zealand, Japan and Ireland, while mechanical problems sidelined him in Germany.