At the finish of the Rally of Turkey, Petter Solberg and Phil Mills sealed sixth position overall, keeping the Subaru World Rally Team in third position overall in the Manufacturers’ Championship. As importantly, with two incredibly tricky rallies completed in the new Impreza WRC2008, the team are confident about now putting the many lessons learned into practice during the six-week break in the WRC calendar.
Both the Acropolis and Turkish rallies have been demanding to the extreme for what is still a very new car. As was the plan, the crews now have a six-week gap without a WRC event in which to consolidate knowledge from these first two rallies. Having identified various areas for fine-tuning, the type of which are only truly demonstrated in the heat of competition, the feverish pace of work will continue in the UK in preparation for Finland.
Having successfully introduced the Impreza WRC2008 to the ultra-competitive world stage, the focus now shifts to realising the machine’s vast potential. Glimmers of this have shone brightly already, demonstrating the degree of pace capable of winning stages already.
Indeed, on the longest stage of the Rally of Turkey, at a gruelling 31km, Solberg attacked hard to overcome a start-line stall and become the fastest man for much of the latter section of the stage. This was followed by a series of turns of stage-winning pace from the Norwegian, pushing to see what was achievable on the treacherous loose gravel roads.
Similarly, feeling bolstered by changes in the midday service, Chris Atkinson and Stéphane Prévot recorded the third fastest stage time on the penultimate test.
