Rally Tour de Corse 2005: Subaru World Rally Team - Finish
The Subaru World Rally Team recorded a strong final result at the Tour de Corse with Petter Solberg on the podium in third and Stéphane Sarrazin fourth.

The result is the team`s best finish on asphalt this year and Petter`s six points move him into joint second position in the drivers` championship. Stéphane was the only driver all rally to get within two seconds of Loeb`s pace and his well-deserved fourth place equals his best-ever WRC result, which he achieved in the 2004 Rallye de Catalunya.

On only his second WRC asphalt event Chris Atkinson continued to learn more about the car on a sealed-surface.

Petter Solberg
“I`m pleased, it was a good rally and we had some good fun out there, let me tell you. The car is going very well on this surface now, of course it`s not a win yet, but it`s a positive result for Subaru and Pirelli, we`ve made a real step in the right direction and I think it looks good for Catalunya.”

Stephane Sarrazin
“I`m happy with fourth place here, it`s a good result for me and the team too. It will be interesting to see how we get on in Catalunya because we have seen this weekend how much improved the car is on asphalt. I`d like to think that we can aim for a higher placed finish next week - I hope I can improve on the fourth place I got there last year.”

Chris Atkinson
“It`s a shame we weren`t able to complete the stages today, but looking at the bigger picture this has been a very useful rally for Glenn and I. We`ve learned heaps and basically improved our pace on every stage. This is only the second tarmac rally of my career and of course it`s pretty tough going up against drivers with so much more experience. The past couple of days gave us a good opportunity to test some different set-ups and finding the limit, like we did today, is part of that process. I`m satisfied that the lessons we have learned will help us significantly both next week and in the future.”

David Lapworth, Team Principal
“We have to be satisfied with our result. We came here looking for a podium and got third and fourth. Neither Petter nor Stéphane put a foot wrong, their cars have run competitively and trouble-free for three days and the Pirelli tyres have performed well. Petter and Stéphane`s pace has been very good and Stéphane even managed to get closer to Sébastien on SS9 than anyone else managed all rally. We said that Chris should learn as much as possible from the event and he`s certainly done that. He set some good times and he`s made some mistakes, but that`s to be expected and it`ll be interesting to see how he goes in Spain next week.”

Less than one week after the close of the Tour de Corse crews will be taking to the road yet again for the Rallye de Catalunya. The second sealed surface event in two weeks takes place in the Tarragona region in southern Spain on a new-for-2005 route. The quickest asphalt rally on the calendar is run in the mountains around Salou, with the service park in the Port Aventura theme park. This is the closest that rallying gets to circuit racing, with wide, flowing stages, quick bends and smooth tarmac.


Tags: france, subaru, impreza, asphalt, solberg, sarrazin,