Lapworth: Subaru in good position.

Subaru's technical director David Lapworth has said that the team is feeling confident about their prospects for the second half of the season following the second competitive outing with the all-new Impreza WRC2008 on the Rally of Turkey last weekend.

Although the Kemer-based event didn't turn out quite as well as the Acropolis two weeks before, both Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson finished - albeit with the latter utilising the SupeRally - and they both set some promising stage times, including three top-three efforts.

"We've successfully completed the first stage of our development programme for our new car and are really happy with the progress we've made to date," Lapworth reflected. "We are in a very good position now to really take advantage of the season break and accelerate the second phase of the programme, which is using the competitive experience we have with the car to improve it step-by-step.

"We will also conduct asphalt testing for the three sealed surface events in the second half of the season. With a brand new car we've shown promising performance, and we're feeling confident of our competitiveness for the rest of the year."

Chris Atkinson meanwhile was also positive, even if he did fail to score again after suspension damage sidelined him on day 1 in SS6 and he lost more time on day 2 with electric and hydraulic issues. The Aussie was eventually classified in 13th, while Petter backed-up his second place finish from Greece with sixth.

"Okay, it's obviously disappointing to have had the small delays that we have had this weekend, but the team are learning all the time with the car. It's not been an easy rally and the roads are very abrasive, but it's a good challenge," Atkinson added.

"The long stages today were particularly tough, but we're out there testing so it works well. Petter's car had a perfect run, so it's just bad luck for us. Now we have a six-week break so we're confident of some big steps forward and looking good for Finland."