Al-Attiyah commits to P-WRC

Al-Attiyah will return to this year's Production series in a Subaru Impreza WRX, starting with this week's Cyprus Rally, but the Qatar driver is still hoping to step up to a World Rally Car in the future.

"It's good news for me with my sponsor Barwa," he said. "This year I am focused on the P-WRC, but for the future we don't know what we will do. Of course, I would like to move to a World Rally Car, but we have to see. For now, it's just good to know that we have the commitment of the sponsor."

Al-Attiyah, who fought for victory in this year's Dakar Rally, will start this second round of the P-WRC as favourite for victory, following an unprecedented six wins on the FIA Middle East Rally Championship-qualifying Troodos Rally, which uses the same roads as this week's event.

"I do have a lot of experience for this race," said Al-Attiyah, "but I don't have so much experience of driving the asphalt stages on gravel tyres, like we will tomorrow. This can be quite a tough test."

Al-Attiyah, who won the 2006 Production title, failed to register a point last season and hasn't won a P-WRC since the 2006 Acropolis Rally, but is confident of bouncing back in 2009, with his latest-specification Group N Impreza.

"We won the Kuwait Rally with this car recently," he said. "The new car feels a lot better. We did have some problems with some mechanical issues, but they're all sorted now.

"I'm feeling much better. We have the speed, but, on this rally in Cyprus, I don't think it's about the speed - the key here is the consistency and getting to the end. It's going to be tough."