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Top-five start for Subaru in Jordan
4:31pm Friday 25th April 2008
BANBURY'S Subaru World Rally Team's Chris Atkinson and Stéphane Prévot finished in fifth position overall after the first punishing day of competition on the first WRC round in the Middle East.
The Subaru World Rally Team duo of Petter Solberg and Phil Mills took an early lead but were forced to retire during the afternoon.
After a week of blistering heat, ten degrees Celsius hotter than normal for this time of year, Friday's weather was a little more subdued by comparison. Reaching a still scorching 35 degrees Celsius, the temperature brought its own sting to this gruelling event.
The surface in Jordan presented enormous challenges for the crews, being quite unlike that experienced anywhere else on the WRC calendar. The road surface is as hard as asphalt, but its grip characteristics are much more akin to a gravel rally and vary within each stage. Crews struggled for grip using the Pirelli Scorpion gravel tyres on such a hard surface, and tyre wear, exacerbated by the heat, was remarkably high.
David Richards, Subaru World Rally Team Principal, said: "We have seen today that Jordan is a worthy addition to the WRC calendar.
"Petter's retirement is very disappointing, especially given his form in the opening stages, but we must now aim to salvage Manufacturers' points in the next two days. Chris again demonstrated his maturity with a measured drive and this has been rewarded with a strong fifth place to take into tomorrow."
Atkinson and Prévot had a consistent day on an event that neither of them had any experience of before Tuesday's reconnaissance, just three days ago. Having made some changes during the midday service, Atkinson was 12 seconds faster on the opening stage of the afternoon before easing his pace towards the end of the day to bring his Impreza WRC2007 to the finish in fifth overall after a day of unknown, unpredictable and unforgiving conditions.
"Fifth overall is good from today - it's in line with our target for this event, and I think we have set a realistic pace this weekend" said Chris Atkinson. "We've not been taking any risks as the grip today has just been so tricky it would have been easy to make a mistake and throw it off.
"We had a couple of moments; a spin and we slid off the road, but fortunately there was no major damage. We have made some changes to the car today which made steps in the right direction, but there is still more to come for tomorrow."
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