4-way fight for final Qatar M-Sport seat

Four drivers have now been linked with the sole remaining Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team seat.

Nasser Al-Attiyah was the first Qatar M-Sport drive to be announced when the Qatar deal was made public, and not long afterwards Mads Ostberg was announced as the second driver. Ostberg was a driver M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson marked out as a driver he would like to sign, and he was promptly signed to one of the team's Ford Fiesta RS WRC's.

Wilson has got time on his hands to make the decision on the final 'works' driver, and he says he won't be rushed on it, with a single driver competing on all rallies next year his preference.

“I’ve got some time now and I’m going to take it. We’ve still got plenty to sort out before we get around to announcing who it’ll be. The one thing I will say is that my preference is to have one driver doing all the rallies, this is better for consistency and for the fight for the championship.” he said.

Petter Solberg, Juho Hanninen, Theirry Neuville and Evgeny Novikov have all been linked to the final seat in the team, and all could well get it. GRN has compiled a list of why we think each driver should get the drive.

Petter Solberg: Ford's works driver in 2012, he proved he has the speed to win again. Consistent early in the season, but crashed a lot towards the end. Solberg knows the Fiesta RS WRC mechanically by now, and is a proven development driver from his years at Subaru.

Juho Hanninen: Former IRC Champion, S-WRC Champion and European Rally Champion at his first go at it. The Finn spent four extremely successful years with Skoda Motorsport, being able to win on every surface. He isn't familiar with WRC cars at all, having hardly competed in any.

Theirry Neuville: A driver certain to win the WRC in years to come. Highly talented Belgian spent two years in the IRC, winning two rallies in 2011. Competing on all 13 events in 2012, he scored six points finishes armed with a Citroen Junior Team DS3 WRC. With experience of all of next season's events, he is sure to be on podium-winning pace next season.

Evgeny Novikov: The Russian ace has matured from a well publicised car-wrecker in his previous years in the WRC (See one of his jumps from Finland 2009, or his spectacular save in Poland of the same year), into a unbelievably consistent driver. Having scored points on all but four rallies this year, including two 2^nd places, he scored 7 times more points than last season. Spending two years in a Fiesta RS WRC, he knows the car inside-out.