The Subaru World Rally Team ended a consistent weekend with the Impreza of Petter Solberg and Phil Mills finishing in fourth place on the Welsh co-driver’s home event. Team-mates Chris Atkinson / Stephane Prevot and Xevi Pons / Xavier Amigo both finished inside the top ten.

On the first day of the final round of the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship, Petter Solberg and his Welsh co-driver Phil Mills kept their focus and consistency in some terrible conditions to finish in a solid fourth position overall. All three Subaru World Rally Team entries finished the opening day inside the top nine.

The Welsh winter brought some extremely difficult conditions. Fog limited visibility to as little as 10 metres in the morning, before the afternoon brought heavy rain and strong winds to make the routes increasingly treacherous. The muddy tracks that wound through the forests of the Brecon Beacons became more cut-up and rougher with the afternoon’s second passes, which, coupled with the near-horizontal rain, made them amongst the trickiest of the season.

Petter Solberg and Phil Mills were very lucky to escape unscathed from a high-speed spin on SS1. After recovering, the duo who have had great success here in past years, completed a largely trouble free day. Like many drivers Solberg reported difficulties with windscreen mist on the latter stages, but on the final test he moved up a place into fourth overall.

Celebrating his 28th birthday, Chris Atkinson and co-driver Stephane Prevot completed the first two stages without problem, despite being caught in dense fog on SS2. They experienced a high-speed moment of their own on the final stage of the morning (SS3) which saw the duo almost completely sideways in sixth gear, but after making some changes in the midday service, left the service park more comfortable with the balance of their Impreza. Stages five and six brought problems with the heated screen on Chris’ car however, which steamed up and further reduced his visibility, losing him almost two minutes and dropping him to seventh, just one second behind sixth.

Xevi Pons and Xavier Amigo were also caught out by a spin on stage two, and experienced oversteer for the morning’s loop that meant they lacked the confidence required to push hard along the worsening routes.

A similar change in service improved the car’s stability – a critical element on such twisty, narrow and treacherous roads and with such bad weather. On the final stages Pons’ car suffered from the same demisting problem as Atkinson and Solberg’s, but he kept out of trouble to return to service ninth overall.

Subaru World Rally Team drivers Petter Solberg and Phil Mills finished the second day of Wales Rally GB in fourth place overall after battling more treacherous winter conditions. Ahead of the final day of competition, their team mates Xevi Pons and Chris Atkinson hold sixth and ninth places respectively.

Today there was no respite from the terrible weather which had made the stages of leg one especially challenging. More heavy rain this morning soaked the narrow gravel routes, and further showers later in the day made grip levels unpredictable. In contrast, the short spectator stage inside Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium was protected from the elements – the only WRC stage this season to be run indoors.

Petter started the day with a spin on the opening corner of the first stage (SS7), and lost in the region of 20 seconds as he restarted the car. He and co-driver Phil Mills recovered to record consistent stage times, including third fastest on the Cardiff spectator stage, and consolidate fourth position overall.

Chris and co-driver Stephane Prevot were involved in a nail-biting battle with Ford’s Matthew Wilson all day as the two fought for sixth position. Ending the first day one second behind Wilson, the Australian completed SS7 three seconds faster to overtake his rival. The pair traded stage times throughout the day, and while Wilson closed to within 0.3 seconds by early afternoon, Chris upped his pace to finish 10 seconds clear.

Xevi Pons and co-driver Xavier Amigo started leg two strongly with the sixth fastest stage time on the opening stage (SS7), before a spin on a tight right-hander in the fourth split of SS8 lost them 40 seconds. The resulting damage to the rear suspension was rectified in service, but the pair ran out of washer fluid by the end of the afternoon loop, reducing their visibility on the night stage with a mud-covered screen.

The final day of Wales Rally GB and also of the 2007 WRC season was the toughest of the rally, and amongst the most treacherous of the year. The heaviest rain of the weekend soaked the stages, turning the routes into deep muddy tracks. Coupled with the foreboding skies, the conditions demanded absolute focus from the crews just to stay on the road.

Petter Solberg had a solid opening stage, before suffering some handling difficulties on the second after running over a rock in the middle of the road. After losing time to Sordo (Citroen) just behind in fifth, he started the afternoon third fastest to ensure he stayed ahead. He and Phil Mills finish the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship fifth overall.

Atkinson struggled in the morning loop, dropping almost 23 seconds to slip behind rally-long rival Wilson (Ford) into seventh. Unhappy with the balance of his Impreza on the morning loop, his pace improved after a setup change during service. He and co-driver Stephane Prevot climbed one place in the championship standings to finish the season seventh overall in the drivers’ contest.

Xevi Pons completed the morning’s stages suffering from a fogged windscreen, but persevered with a solid drive to complete the first loop of the event’s toughest stages with reduced visibility. With a comfortable cushion over Ostberg (Subaru) from leg two, Pons and Xavier Amigo retained their position of ninth overall.