WRC Championship Standings (after Japan)

Drivers'  

Constructors'

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.

“This weekend has not been bad at all, no real problems” said Petter Solberg. “On lots of stages we’ve had fastest splits and been faster than anyone else which is very good. The car is very reliable, and it’s been a difficult past two rallies but the engineers have learned a lot and have a very good strategy plan. The guys know exactly where to work on the car now so I think it will be no problem to find a lot more in this car. It definitely has so much potential, so we just need to work to make the most of that. We still have some work to do to make it fast on every stage”

Acropolis Rally of Greece - 30th May - 1st June 2008

"We haven't had such a quiet Sunday for some time," joked Sébastien Loeb at the finish. "After yesterday's punishing stages, today's conditions were far more straightforward. We succeeded in driving sufficiently quickly to stayed concentrated but at the same time we did what we could to make sure we spared our tyres and car all the way to the flag."

"This is an important win for us," continued the reigning World Champion. "It shows the progress we have made on the loose, while the work put in by everyone in the team to adapt our Citroën C4 WRC to its Pirelli tyres across the full spectrum of surface types has paid dividends. I am pleased with our run over what are incontestably the toughest stages of the season. Today's result has enabled us to recover the lead in the championship and it's been a good weekend, too, in terms of the Manufacturers' championship. The strength and competitiveness of our C4 and the successful management of our Pirelli tyres were the main keys to success here."

"Our objective today was to reach the finish," admitted Dani Sordo. "Marc and I opted for a safe pace, yet we still managed to move up two places, so that's a good result. Had it not been for our problems yesterday we would probably have finished higher up the order, but I am still pleased with our final position which means valuable points for Citroën. I succeeded in staying completely focused over the three days."

Rally d'Italia - 16th - 18th May 2008

"Our 40th WRC win was certainly hard work," beamed Sebastian Loeb at the finish. "The weekend was very frustrating at times, especially because of all the 'road sweeping' that had to be done, but we managed to hold on to a big enough lead to finish on top. There was little more we could have done: we didn't make any mistakes and our C4 performed absolutely perfectly. Not to have won would have been a huge disappointment, so I'm very happy, not only for us but also for the team and for our situation in the two championships. The weekend showed once again that our car is competitive over this sort of terrain, and that's encouraging for the coming rounds."

ARGENTINA - 28th -30th March 2008

It seems that if you finished in Argentina, you deserved all the points you could get! Not even eventual winner Sebastian Loeb was completely immune to the weather conditions, completing the very first stage a full 50 seconds slower than the initial leader Mikko Hirvonen.

"Believe me, it wasn't easy," admitted Loeb. "Given the delicate conditions, we had to stay doubly concentrated from start to finish. We also benefited from a faultless performance from our Citroën C4 which was once again competitive and reliable. Before coming here, we had been hoping that Rally Argentina would enable us to take the lead in the Drivers championship and score points for Citroën, and that's what we've done!"

Despite Citroen having two cars finish in podium positions, the BP-Ford team cling on to their Constructors' Championship lead, Hirvonen picking up vital points, coming in fifth.

Petter Solberg continued his unlucky run, retiring with an electrical problem at the beginning of day three from second place. However, all was not lost for the Subaru team, Chris Atkinson survived the three days and took Solberg's second place.

“I am desperately disappointed for Petter and Phil” said David Richards, Subaru World Rally Team Principal. “Petter is showing such renewed enthusiasm since we’ve got the car more to his liking, and despite this setback I’m feeling increasingly confident for the rest of the season. In Chris’ case, his maturity in these extraordinarily tough conditions has delivered him yet another excellent result.”

MEXICO - 28th Feb - 2nd March 2008

"I'm delighted to have won here," beams Sebastian Loeb as he steps off the podium. "Following our blank scorecard in Sweden, it was important to try to bounce back straight away. It wasn't easy and, as often seems to be the case in Mexico, we had a troubled start, but the rest of the event went very well for us! It's the sort of victory I like because it came after a good fight. Marcus Grönholm's absence has already been filled by another Finn who is younger and just as determined. I think we can look forward to some good scraps this year, and that's fine by me! For this weekend's hard-packed stages, Pirelli took the safe choice with a very hard compound in a bid to ward off punctures. We effectively didn't suffer any, but we had to adjust our set-up to improve traction. The team responded well and our times here with the C4 WRC are an encouraging pointer for the rest of the year."