Oooouuucchhhh!

Subaru Takes 7th at Monte Carlo
A better start than last year

January 25, 2004

Subaru's lead driver and the Current WRC Champion Petter Solberg put in a good show at the most historic rally on the calendar and demonstrated the performance of the 2004 WRC Subaru Impreza on a range of difficult asphalt.

Monte Carlo is know for its varying conditions (ice and snow as well as dry and wet tarmac) and this year was no exception.

Petter scored a stage win on SS13. Unfortunately, a small error on the second to last stage cost the him two places on the leaderboard. He finished the event in 7th...a points-scoring position (2 points - which are two more points than Subaru scored last year at Monte Carlo).

Team Quotes

David Lapworth, 555 Subaru World Rally Team Principal

"Monte Carlo has certainly lived up to its difficult and specialist reputation. It's a shame that after such a well-paced performance on Friday and Saturday Petter was caught out this afternoon. But, these things happen and we can take some consolation from the fact that he's got some points in the bag. Mechanically, both cars were trouble free all rally, and the pace that Petter showed with his stage win on SS13 highlighted the tarmac developments that have been made in conjunction with Pirelli."

Petter Solberg

"What can I say? I just hit a patch of snow, braked a little too late and slid into a wall. It's a shame as I wasn't really driving to risk anything, but these things just happen sometimes. Perhaps I was a little unlucky, but at least we didn't drop out of the points altogether. Luckily, we're taking two points away this year, which is two more than last year! Overall, it's not such a bad result especially when you consider that there are fifteen more rallies still to go."

Next Event

Teams move to Sweden for the second round of the 2004 FIA World Rally Championship. Beginning on Thursday 5 February with a ceremonial start in the host town of Karlstad, the Rally of Sweden is the true winter rally of the series, and can sometimes see temperatures fall as low as - 30 degrees. Over three days, drivers will contest 394.80 competitive kilometres based around a single service point in the town of Hagfors, 80km north of Karlstad's rally headquarters. The first stage will start at 0822hrs on Friday 6 February.