Hanninen to drive in Czech Republic

Juho Hanninen has said that he will be contesting Skoda’s home rally, next month's Barum Czech Rally Zlin.

The Finn was originally not expected to do the rally, but last year's winner was given the green light to do the event after his win on the Sata Rally Açores, his third of the current season. However, Hanninen knows that he will be under pressure from fellow Skoda drivers Jan Kopecky and Andreas Mikkelsen. Freddy Loix, last year's winner, is also going to be present.

“I will be there in the Czech Republic and I can win but it will be as difficult as it was to win last time, in the Azores. Jan is very strong over there and also we saw the speed of Andreas Mikkelsen in Ukraine and in the Azores. So I try to win but it won’t be easy.” said the Finn.

Local hero Jan Kopecky lead the rally for 13 stages last year, before crashing out on the 14^th test. This handed the lead to Peugeot's Bryan Bouffier, but Skoda's Freddy Loix took the lead from Bouffier & went on to win the rally.

The Czech round will take place over the weekend of 26th-28^th August, only a week after the ADAC Rallye Deutschland, a counting round of the S-WRC, on which Hanninen is focusing his 2011 efforts. It is for this reason that Skoda are putting their weight behind Jan Kopecky, in an effort to get the Czech driver to the top of the IRC Driver's Standings. He currently sits third on 70 points, 13 behind his team-mate.

Sata Rally Açores: Day 3 review

Juho Hanninen moved to the top of the all time wins standings with victory on this week's Sata Rally Açores. Andreas Mikkelsen dropped to second after leading at the end of today's first stage. However, Hanninen showed why he is reigning Driver's Champion, taking 13.9 secs out of Mikkelsen over the 22Km stage. Mikkelsen finished the event trailing Hanninen by 42.3 secs.

“It’s been a good weekend and thanks to the team. We had three ŠKODAs on the podium so that’s a great result. We had a good fight with Andreas, especially yesterday and this victory feels very good.” said Hanninen.

Completing yet another Skoda podium lockout, Jan Kopecky inherited third after Peugeot's Bruno Magalhaes retired at the start of SS14, the rear differential support breaking left the rear differential nearly dragging on the ground. Kopecky 1 min 46 sec behind his flying team-mate.

Reigning French Rally Champion Bryan Bouffier took fourth at the finish. The Frenchman was hampered by running first on the road for all three days, but still remains in the title fight with his solid fourth place finish on his début on the event. Just behind Bouffier was former Junior World Champion Patrick Sandell. The Swede was hampered by a 1 min penalty yesterday for clocking into a time control early, but he took his first fastest stage time in the IRC by going fastest on the final stage.

From sixth down to ninth were the Group N runners, with run-away winner Ricardo Moura taking sixth, 3 mins 45 secs ahead of his nearest challenger, Vitor Lopez. Moura finishing over 6 mins behind overall rally leader Hanninen. Third in Group N was Vitor Pascoal, 6 mins 40 secs behind Moura. Taking ninth overall and fourth in Group N was Sérgio Silva in his Impreza.

Rounding out the Top 10 & taking 2WD honours was Paulo Maciel. The Portuguese driver took his Citroen Saxo to a 1 min 33.7 sec winning margin over his nearest challenger, and IRC 2WD Championship leader, Jean-Michal Raoux. Carlos Costa managed to take third in his Citroen C2 R2. He was over 5 mins behind Maciel. Harry Hunt retired again today after he beached his Citroen DS3 R3T on SS13.

Fumio Nutahara drove a fairly clean rally to finish in 11^th position in his Subaru Impreza R4. Toshi Arai, in the other Impreza R4, rejoined today after electrical problems put him out yesterday. The Japanese driver was under orders to drive as hard as he could today, but a puncture on SS14 put him well down the order.

Sata Rally Açores: Day 2 review

Reigning IRC Drivers Champion Juho Hanninen continues to lead the Sata Rally Açores as Leg 2 of the rally draws to a close. Things are very tight at the top, however, with fellow Skoda driver Andreas Mikkelsen, second, has slashed the Finn's lead to only 1.3 secs after he stalled on the day's final stage.

Third is last year's winner Bruno Magalhaes is third, 49.8 secs off the lead. He said he's happy with his performance today, but had some problems with his rear dampers on the final loop of today's stages.

The Portuguese driver, who will start 3^rd on the road tomorrow as part of the ICC’s road-order deciding plan, said: "Our competitors are too strong and, for our part, we are doing what we can. We are moving very quickly, we maintain our place on the podium, a goal that is far from easy. For us it is an excellent result in this second day of the rally and we are very pleased with our performance."

Skoda Motorsport's other driver, Jan Kopecky, is fourth overnight. The Czech is 54.7 secs off his team-mate's pace, citing some confidence issues as his problem. He has a good cushion over Championship leader Bryan Bouffier, a 1 min 25.4 secs cushion to be exact. Bouffier maintains a 52.7 sec lead over Group N leader Ricardo Moura, who is sitting in sixth.

Patrick Sandell would be in sixth, but a first-time timing error from co-driver Staffan Parmander, dropping the pairing to seventh. They clocked into SS9 early, giving themselves a 1 min penalty. Sandell now sits 8 secs behind Moura.

The rest of the Top 10 is filled with the second, third and fourth placed Group N drivers, Vitor Lopez, Vitor Pascoal and Sérgio Silva. Second in Group N, Lopez, sits 1 min 36 secs off the pace of the flying Evo X of Moura.

Fumio Nutahara is 11th in the sole-surviving Impreza R4. His team-mate Toshi Arai was 10^th overall overnight before master switch problems on SS4 lead to his retirement. He will restart tomorrow, and is under orders to 'show the pace' of the car. Nutahara is now 7 mins 45 secs off the lead and is over 1 min 30 sec off a Top 10 position.

Peugeot UK's Guy Wilks crashed out of sixth place on the final stage of today's opening loop, SS 6. He broke his front right wish-bone in the impact, and it is not known at this present moment whether of not he will rejoin the running tomorrow.

Paulo Maciel holds a comfortable gap of 1 min 15.5 secs over Jean-Michal Raoux in the IRC 2WD standings. Carlos Costa is a further 58 secs behind Raoux. Harry Hunt is fifth overnight in his DS3 R3T, 5 mins 35 secs off the lead. He dropped 6 mins on the fog-stricken SS6 when he slid off the road.

Sata Rally Acores: Day 1 review

Reigning IRC Champion Juho Hanninen has taken the lead on the Sata Rally Açores today in his Skoda Motorsport Fabia S2000.

Last year's winner Bruno Magalhaes is second and early leader Andreas Mikkelsen, in the Skoda UK car, is third. Power-steering failure on Mikkelsen's Fabia 4kms from the end of SS2 and having to fight his car through the final, twisty, super-special stage dropped him to third. He sits just 5 secs off the lead, and 1.4 secs behind Magalhaes.

Skoda Sweden's Patrick Sandell's pre-event prediction of the Skodas being quick seems to be ringing true as the first day draws to a close. Sandell and works driver Jan Kopecky are fifth and fourth, respectively, in their Fabia's, which makes it four Fabias in the top 5.

Moura Ricardo is sixth in his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X, making him fastest Group N pilot. He holds an 18.9 sec lead over Subaru Impreza driver, Vitor Lopes, who is currently sitting ninth.

Seventh & eighth are Peugeot drivers Guy Wilks and current Championship leader Bryan Bouffier. Wilks sits 29.3 secs behind leader Hanninen after electing to play road-order tactics in SS2, while Bouffier is 7 secs behind Wilks, the legacy of being first on the road.

Toshi Arai is quickest of the R4-spec Imprezas. He spun then stalled the car on the final stage, dropping him to tenth, 56.2 secs off the pace. Team-mate Fumio Nutahara is fourteenth, 1min 18.8 secs off the lead.

In the IRC 2WD section, Paulo Maciel leads the category in his Citroen Saxo, with Harry Hunt, on-board a Citroen DS3 R3T, in close pursuit, 6.5 secs behind. Ruben Rodrigues is third in a Citroen C2 R2 Max. He is 11.6 secs off the lead.

No Estonia for Meeke

Kris Meeke will now not be competing on this weekend's Rally Estonia after a testing accident.

The MINI WRC Team driver is believed to have hit a rock on Monday during testing for Rally Finland. The car was repaired, allowing himself to complete the day's testing, and allow team-mate Dani Sordo to continue testing for the next two days.

However, it later transpired that the car would need more work than could be carried out on-site during the test. This, coupled with the big push on for Prodrive to complete the four other cars for their customers, led to the team taking the decision to pull Meeke's entry for the Estonian event.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed to be missing out on competitive event mileage before Rally Finland, but it’s the team’s decision.” said the 2009 IRC Drivers Champion.

Pulling out of the event, however, allowed Meeke to complete some testing after Sordo's test ended. David Lapworth says that the Meeke's problem on Monday hasn't caused any problems for the team's Finland testing programme, saying both drivers, collectively, ran 750Kms of testing.

He said: “Both drivers have done more then 350 kilometres of testing. In total, across the three days, we have done around 750 kilometres, I think that’s a pretty good test.”

Skoda drivers expected to be quick in Acores

Skoda Sweden driver Patrick Sandell has said he expects the Skoda Fabia S2000 drivers on this week's Sata Rally Acores to be very quick when the Challenge returns to gravel.

Skoda are due to field four Fabias S2000's, two Skoda Motorsport cars for Juho Hanninen & Jan Kopecky, one Skoda Sweden car for Patrick Sandell & a Skoda UK car for Andreas Mikkelsen.

All of the Skoda drivers have prior experience of the Acores event, except Sandell. Last year's event proved a small disaster for the Skoda team,however, with Jan Kopecky crashing out on the last stage and Juho Hanninen losing a enough time to lose him the lead and drop him to third. Despite last year's calamities, the Skoda drivers, who prefer gravel events, are expected to be the pace setters of the rally.

“Andreas is fifth on the road, just one place ahead of me, and this will be the almost ideal road position for the first day of the rally. I wouldn’t be surprised if myself and Mikkelsen are at the top on Thursday night but Juho is very strong as well. Either way they will be the strongest guys to race against.” said the two-times Junior World Rally Champion, Sandell.

Endurance format for 2012 Monte

Rallye Monte Carlo will return to the WRC Calendar next year after a three year absence, and it will bring big changes.

“The ACM general commissioner’s office has worked out a concept which remains faithful to the reputation of the winter road rally, so that competitors, manufacturers and spectators can rediscover the elements that forged the legend of the Monte Carlo Rally, allowing amateurs to compete with professionals.” a statement from the organisers, the Automobile Club de Monaco, said.

The event, which formed part of the IRC for the past three years, will feature a much longer route and a tweak to the format. The shakedown will take place on Tuesday, four stages on Wednesday, six stages on Thursday and two stages on Friday morning before teams appear in Monte Carlo itself in the evening. Action resumes on Saturday afternoon with four stages and the 'Power Stage' on Sunday morning, a three mile run which is to be televised live. The trophy presentation will take place on Sunday afternoon, at the traditional Place du Palais.

The new route will boost the competitive distance to over 430kms, up on 2008's 365kms. The last time the rally was run at such a length was in 1995, when the rally ran to over 500kms. Spanish legend Carlos Sainz took with win driving for Subaru that year. The rally will also feature an added 240kms of road sections, upping the road section distance to over 1200Kms.

“With a total of 17 stages, including 433 kilometres timed and 1246 kilometres connecting roads, this Monte Carlo Rally is certain to uphold the long tradition of a highly challenging course, requiring great endurance on the part of drivers and vehicles alike.”

Famous stages such as Le Moulinon-Antraigues, St Bonnet le Froid and the epic stage that is the Col de Turini, over which two runs will be taken. The rally is set to be the opening rally of 2012, and as such will continue to feature it's trademark conditions, snow and ice, which can change to dry tarmac mid-stage.

Martin back for Rally Estonia

Reigning Rally Estonia winner Markko Martin has placed his entry for Rally Estonia, which will run next weekend, 15-16 July.

"Markko Martin's participation in Rally Estonia is very good news for the rally fans. For the organisers this means bigger publicity, good competition and a great opportunity to introduce Estonia in Europe. As Markko is starting in Rally Estonia, there is a very big possibility that victory of Rally Estonia will come to Estonia." said the event director, Urmo Aava.

Martin stormed to the win on last year's event, driving his own MM Motorsport run Ford Focus WRC03, a car which he says is his favourite world rally car. The 2010 event marked the return to competitive driving for the Estonian, who took five wins and drove for three manufacturers, Subaru, Ford & Peugeot, during his 5 year WRC career. More recently, he has taken part in tests for Ford and Subaru.

The Estonian is seen as a good event for pre-Rally Finland testing in a competitive environment. This year's event will see Kris Meeke take part for the MINI WRC Team, Mads Ostberg for the M-Sport Stobart Ford Rally Team as well as René & Dennis Kuipers for FERM Powertools World Rally Team. Meeke and Ostberg will drive the cars in which they will take part in Rally Finland in. It will be interesting to see how Martin's older 2.0 Turbo car will stack up to the new 1.6 Turbo cars. WRC Academy drivers Alistair Fisher, Craig Breen, Molly Taylor and Egon Kaur will also take part in their Ford Fiesta's.

Mads Ostberg, Ford Fiesta RS WRC, said: "Markko Martin starting means this will be a good rally, and we are going to fight for the victory for sure. We are working with different set-ups, though, and our goal is to get a good feeling before Rally Finland."

Martin's MM Motorsport team will run four cars, two Focus WRC's, a Group N Impreza and a Ford Fiesta, for Martin himself, Georg Gross, Sander Parn and Egon Kaur, respectively. Latvian Ivars Vasaraudzis will take part in a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC for the Skandi Motors Rally Team, the same team under which Jari Ketomaa will drive a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X R4.

Meeke eager to get back to competitive driving

MINI WRC Team driver Kris Meeke says that he is eager to get back to competitive World RallyChampionship driving on this month's Rally Finland, after a non-competitive lay off of three months.

Meeke, who returned to the WRC full-time for the first time in 2006, when he drove for the works Citroen J-WRC team. He was dropped from the team at the end of 2006, and drove in various national rallies, and a few international ones, until 2009 when he was picked up by the Peugeot UK for an assault on the IRC. He stormed to the Driver's Championship, winning the championship one round early in Italy and by 11 points. He was signed by the MINI WRC Team at the end of 2010 for six WRC events.

Meeke will contest the rest of the WRC season, with the exception of Rally Australia. He has already took part on the Rally d'Italia Sardegna in May, and held fourth until a throttle problem sent him into retirement. He will take part in the Rally Estonia next weekend in practice for Rally Finland, where he doesn't have the best finishing record in Finland.

“There’s been a three-month gap between Sardinia and Finland. But once Finland starts, we’re doing five from the last six rallies – I just can’t wait to get going again. Before Rally Finland we’re going to Rally Estonia, which is a brilliant way to get back into the car again.”

Between Italy & Finland, the MINI Team have been completing an extensive testing programme on tarmac, in preparation for the three upcoming tarmac events, Germany, Spain and France. Meeke and team-mate Dani Sordo took part in the tests, and Meeke is impressed with how the car has been performing on sealed-surfaces.

Of the tests, he said: “We believe now we have a complete package. We’re turning up the tests and getting quickly into the nitty-gritty, we’re not hitting any small problems which would slow us down.”

Meeke and Sordo are both due to take part in Rally Finland, sporting numbers 52 and 37, respectively. They are not the only MINI's entered in the rally, with Daniel Olivera, Armindo Araujo, Matti Rantanen and Mattias Therman all taking part in a MINI John Cooper Works WRC.

Monster makes it six in Colorado

Nobuhiro Tajima has taken his sixth straight win at the Pikes Peak Hill climb in Colorado, and has fulfilled an ambition to break the ten-minute barrier.

The man known as 'Monster' took his 850 BHP Suzuki SX4 Hill Climb Special up the 20km run in an amazing time 9mins 51.278secs. The previous record was set in 2007 at 10mins 1.41secs by Tajima himself, and he said he was sure he could go faster and break the 10min barrier. He did so this year, and says he'll have a go at going quicker.

75% of this year's event was run on sealed surface, and it is planned that the 2012, and the 90^th , running of the event will be held on 100% sealed surface tracks. A lawsuit filed against Colorado Springs has forced this change to the road.

Monster's run was not completely trouble-free though, his Suzuki's power-steering failed and the engine began to overheat in the final kilometre of his record-breaking run.

Large entry for Finland

Next month's Rally Finland is set to field the largest number of the new WRC-spec machines seen on a World Rally this year.

Ford, Citroen and MINI are set to field, collectively, twenty one different cars, for fifteen different teams, eight of which are registered for WRC Manufacturers points.

Citroen are have four DS3's in the entry list, running cars for Sebastian Loeb and Sebastian Ogier (Citroen World Rally Team), Kimi Raikkonen (ICE1 Racing) and Petter Solberg (Petter Solberg World Rally Team)

Ford are well represented, with no less than ten WRC-spec Fiesta's in the entry list. Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team), Matthew Wilson, Mads Ostberg, Henning Solberg and Evgney Novikov (M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team), Dennis and Rene Kuipers (FERM Powertools World Rally Team), Khalid Al-Qassimi (Team Abu Dhabi), Jari Ketomaa (HJ-Autotalo) and Janne Tuohino and all behind the wheel of a Ford. P-G Andersson was due to take part in a Fiesta, but he will start in a Subaru Impreza R4.

Mini are also well represented, on only the second event for the Countryman WRC. Drivers competing in the Prodrive-run machines are Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo (MINI World Rally Team), Daniel Olivera (Brazil World Rally Team), Armindo Araujo (Motorsport Italia), Mattias Therman and Matti Rantanen.

The S-WRC category is supporting a strong entry, with no less than thirteen S2000 cars, mainly Ford Fiesta S2000's. Regulars such as Martin Prokop, Juho Hanninen, Eyvind Brynildsen and Albert Llovera all entered. Volkswagen have also entered two Skoda Fabia S2000's, for Joonas Lindroos and Andreas Mikkelsen. Some of the new R4 cars have been entered in this rally, with two Mitsubishi Lancer X R4's (Juho Salo and Paulo Nobre) and a solitary Subaru Impreza R4 (P-G Andersson) entered.

All in all, 124 cars have entered the rally, showing the popularity of the event, formerly known as the 1000 Lakes Rally.

Ypres Rally 2011: Review

Freddy Loix has landed his seventh with on the Ypres Rally.

Leading from stage 1, Loix was never to be headed over the course of the 18 stage event. Bryan Bouffier took second, 1min 41.6secs off Loix' flying Skoda. S2000 novice Hans Weijs Jr. took third, driving another Skoda Fabia.

Polish driver Michal Solowow took fourth in his Ford Fiesta S2000, over 6mins off the lead. Peugeot UK driver Guy Wilks had an up-down rally, being sat in second and setting consistent times over day one and went fastest over Day 2's opener, but a double puncture on SS10, a slow puncture on SS15 and another puncture on SS16 put paid to his podium aspirations. The Briton did fair better than his Peugeot team-mate Theirry Neuville. A pre-event favourite, the Belgian broke a wheel on SS1 and had to drive on it for over a kilometre to find a place to pull in. It transpired when he stopped his suspension had broken, causing his retirement. He returned on Day 2 but hit a concrete block, breaking the suspension again.

Karl Kruuda took sixth in his Fiesta S2000, while seventh and eighth were Toni Gardemiester and European Rally Champion Luca Rossetti.

Another driver to be forced to retire was Andreas Mikkelsen, who landed his Fabia in a rather deep Belgian ditch. He attempted to extract the car from the ditch, but hit a concrete block and retired on the spot. He returned on Day 2 and took four stage wins.

Pieter Tsjoen, six-times and reigning Belgian Rally Champion, held third overnight, but suffered a strange accident on Day 2. Heading to Stage 11, Tsjoen stopped by the side of the road for a short break before the 9km stage. He pulled away from the side of the road, but hit a metal pole, which pierced the radiator of the 207 S2000. He made it through the stage, going 10^th fastest, only losing 6secs. However, all the water leaked out of the cooling system, despite the best efforts of Tsjoen and co-driver Lara Vanneste, substituting for the injured Eddie Chevaillier, and advice from other crews, forcing retirement.

The Irish had a good representation in this rally, with Robert Barrable taking 10^th overall in his Skoda Fabia S2000. Tommy Doyle took his Renault Clio R3 to second overall in the IRC 2WD Cup.

In the IRC 2WD Cup, Kris Princen won the rally after Kevin Abbring wedged his Citroen DS3 R3T in a ditch on Stage 14, losing 3mins in the process. He fought back to fourth over the remaining four stages. Reigning 2WD Champion Harry Hunt exited the rally on Saturday's opening loop.

Madiera drops out of IRC calender

Rali Vinho Madeira has been removed from this year's IRC calender and from next year's calender, citing financial problems. The rally was due to run at the beginning of August.

The rally, based on the Portuguese island of Madeira, was to be the seventh round of the series. A completely sealed surface encounter, the rally would mark the return to tarmac after the series switched to gravel for the Sata Rally Acores in mid July.

“The rally informed us recently that they would no longer be able to honour the terms of their contract with Eurosport Events [promoters of the IRC], notably part of their funding obligations. This has created a number of logistical and operational difficulties and is not what we would have expected from an event promoter. As a result we have decided to remove the rally from our calendar for this year and 2012 when our existing agreement was due to expire.” said Geraldine Filiol of Eurosport Events.

The rally will not be replaced with another event so the IRC will straight go to the Czech Republic for the Barum Czech Rally Zlin at the end of August after they complete the Sata Rally Acores.

Al-Attiyah out to defend Dakar title

Nasser Al-Attiyah has said he is out to find a drive which will enable him to compete on, and possibly win, the 2012 Dakar to follow up his success on the 2011 edition of the mammoth event.

The Qatari driver took the win on this year's Dakar Rally driving a works VW Toureag. However, with VW calling a halt to their hugely successful Dakar programme to focus their efforts on their WRC campaign, Al-Attiyah is out of a drive. Al-Attiyah is not completely out of Volkswagen, with the Qatari scheduled to test VW's rally car as early as December, and he has been linked with a drive in the team.

Al-Attiyah is not keen to jump at the first Dakar drive he is offered, however. He has said he wants to wait until he finds out that VW intend to do, after which he will make his decision.

“There are a lot of options to do Dakar again with another team but for me I must know exactly what I will have for the next three or four years [with Volkswagen]. Dakar is my dream because I won this year and I want to defend my title. I need to know [Volkswagen’s] decision.” he said.

WRC 2010 sequel confirmed

The official sequel to WRC 2010, WRC 2, is due to hit the shelves this October, publisher of the game Black Bean Games have confirmed.

CEO of North One Sport, the WRC's promoter, Simon Long said that WRC 2 will be a worthy sequel to the hugely successful WRC 2010 saying: “The 2010 WRC game put our sport back on the gaming map. With WRC 2 we look to take this further. More realism, more detail and more variety is what we have seen in the studio so far this year. The new game is rich in WRC history, but also gives a glimpse of the future. With MINI taking on the established Citroen and Ford teams and the impending return of Volkswagen, the WRC is heading for a golden era and we want to take our WRC gamers on that journey too.”

Under development by Milestone, developers of WRC 2010, the game is to feature 90 different stages in 15 different countries. The game is also to feature a challenging weather system, with 25 different weather conditions and terrain types to face.

Nine category of rally car also feature, with cars ranging from the classics of the 1960's to the modern day super-cars. Career mode, which enables players to start at the bottom in 2WD machines and work their way up to WRC level, has undergone a renovation, as has the online gaming facility, with 16 different players able to compete head-to-head.

Luisa Bixio, from Leader Spa, of whom Black Bean Games are part, said: “There are millions of WRC followers and racing games enthusiasts all around the world and our ambition is to make them happy with our official products. Most of them simply can’t wait to know more about the next WRC episode.”

“We really want to deliver a state-of-the-art off-road motorsport experience which combines a great graphics impact, the best driving model in this genre and all the WRC elements from the current season such as all classes, drivers, all rallies as well as much more to enjoy.”

Henning pleased with strong return

Henning Solberg got his return to the WRC off to a great start after he scored his best finish of the year, 5^th on last weekend's Acropolis Rally.

On-board his M-Sport prepared Ford Fiesta RS WRC, the 38-year old Norwegian drove a consistent rally, aside from brake problems on Saturday, to score fifth place at the end of the rally. His team-mate Matthew Wilson came in sixth, 1min 30secs behind Solberg.

He said: “I am very happy with my position. I just hoped to drive to the finish with no problems and that has been the case so that is good. We have had our share of bad luck at times, mostly with the brakes on Saturday but the car worked very well on Friday and on Sunday.”

Solberg's co-driver Ilka Minor said that the Greek result was well needed: “We needed a result like this. Not just for our sponsors, but for ourselves. It has been a difficult season.”

Solberg was forced to give Rally Argentina a miss to finalise a deal which will see him able to concentrate more on driving than actually getting to the rallies. Team boss Malcolm Wilson said that he would have preferred that Solberg miss Argentina so as that his long-term future would be secured.

Not only did the Norwegian secure fifth place in Greece, he also went home with the Abu Dhabi Spirit Of The Rally award. Another driver who took the award was Petter Solberg, Henning's younger brother.

“I’m very pleased about this award. It just feels great to be back in the WRC and we hope to come back even stronger for the second half of the year. I will try my best in Finland and push for a good result to see what we can do, that is all I hope for.” said Henning.

Arai says new car will pick up pace

Subaru driver Toshi Arai says that he is sure that the new R4 specification Impreza can pick up pace on his remaining rounds of this year's IRC season.

“This was a very long test session. We were [in Corsica] to learn and to improve the car. We didn’t know so much about this car on Tarmac because we only tested once in Austria. We have done our work on gravel, where we know we can be strong. We are also trying different Yokohama tyre compounds, which gave us a lot of good information.”

Running on Yokohama tyres, the double Production World Rally Champion made the Impreza R4's competitive début on last week's Tour de Corse, which was, in his own words, a “very long test session”. He finished 13^th overall, with limited knowledge of how the car would behave on tarmac, having only tested the car in tarmac trim once before.

Subaru will field Arai and another hugely experienced Japanese driver, Fumio Nutahara, on July's Sata Rally Acores, where the pair will be looking to improve the car on tarmac before their first gravel rally in the new car, RACMSA Rally of Scotland in October.

New road order-deciding plan?

The FIA is reportedly considering using the shakedown practise session before a rally as a 'qualifying' session, for the purpose of deciding the running order on WRC gravel events.

The details of the new running order decider have not been released, but it is hoped that the new system would cut out the use of 'tactics', used to manipulate the current system of whoever finished the day first, starts first on the next day.

Tactics have become a real problem since the abolition of the old system, which entailed that the top 14 drivers would be reversed at the end of every day, at the end of 2007. The problems came to a head in Turkey 2008 when Ford used tactics to their fullest advantage to score a 1-2 finish. The event left Sebastian Loeb, who was demoted to third because of the incident, not impressed with the use of tactics. It also happened in Jordan 2010, when teams told their drivers to drop up to nine minutes, in one case, in an attempt to give their team-mate the advantage.

WRC manager Michele Mouton has said that any new proposal would need to be thoroughly investigated before they can be implemented: "We need to look at this very thoroughly before we can come up with some proposals for changing the regulations. We've already been studying this solution for quite a while and one of the important things is where you draw the line of how many drivers it should apply to."

Any proposed ideas need to have the unanimous support from all the competing teams. Mouton says that something could be brought it before the season close, if everyone agreed, but some have already said they don't agree.

Benzet claims no driver tension

Director General of Citroen Frederic Banzet has said that there is no tension between Sebastian Loeb and Sebastian Ogier.

Rumours began spreading that the relationship between the two drivers started to become strained between the two after Citroen No.1 driver Loeb sensationally declared last July that it would be better for the sport, and for himself as a driver, if Ogier did leave the team to join rivals Ford. (See earlier story here)

However, Banzet seems to think that the two drivers still maintain a good relationship: “I feel there is a very good atmosphere in the team, first. So, whatever you and your colleagues are saying, I feel is not true when I am in the team.”

Nothing ever came of Ogier's rumoured move to the Blue Oval, and staying at Citroen netted him Citroen No.2 position.

Banzet also says that both drivers enjoy equal status within the team and have been told by Oliver Quesnel to “stay on the road”.

“I think they are both professionals and they do their job for the brand. They are on an equal level with the contract and they have been told by Olivier [Quesnel] that their job is to stay on the road." he added.

Loeb and Ogier occupy first and third, respectively, in the WRC Drivers Standings, with Ogier trailing the resurgent Loeb by 19 points. Citroen currently head the Manufacturers Standings on 167 points, 17 ahead of Ford.

Araujo says new car will find pace

Armindo Araujo is sure that he can find some extra pace in his new MINI after his début in the new version of the car.

Araujo, who drives a Motorsport Italia run MINI John Cooper Works WRC, put the blame for his lack of pace on a lack of pre-event testing in the new car. The Portuguese driver is more used to the Super Production version, having débuted the car along side Daniel Olivera of the Brazil World Rally Team on last month's Rally de Portugal. His first run in the WRC-spec car was on the shakedown of last weekend's Rally d'Italia Sardegna.

During the rally, he copied the set-up of the Super Production car onto the WRC machine. With the WRC car's improved aero kit, this set-up proved ineffective, rendering the car hard to drive.

“We arrived in Sardinia without tests so with the new WRC [bolt-on body kit] the car was not working like I like and like the Super 2000 version I drove on Rally of Portugal. I didn’t find the confidence to push and I started losing a lot of time. Now we are preparing to do some tests to be faster and more confident for Greece.” said Araujo.

Despite problems with the car overheating and the set-up problems, which lead to the car becoming unbalanced and the steering not being precise, Araujo survived the three days of the rally to finish 12^th overall.

However, he is hopeful of some testing mileage before his next outing in Greece in mid-June, which he expects to have sorted by the Greek event. He also commented on the aero difference in the Super Production and WRC cars, which he says completely changes the balance of the car.

“Comparing with the car from Portugal with the new aerodynamic, kit the balance of the car changed completely. Sometimes I don’t have the balance and sometimes [I was] without the good steering. As a result the times are not coming. But for sure we have the potential. We need to make more kilometres but it will be good in a few months.”

Araujo is to compete on the rest of the European-based events in this year's calender, with the view to competing on a full programme for next year.