Former champ looking to improve in Britain

Makinen scored a solitary point with sixth place in Australia this weekend, leaving the Finn right in the thick of a three-way battle for the championship with Ford's Colin McRae and Subaru's Richard Burns heading into the season-closing Rally GB in three weeks' time.

The Finn, who moves to Subaru next year after taking four titles with Mitsubishi, picked up the new Lancer's first championship points down under since the car made its debut in Sanremo in September. But he acknowledged that there is still a lot to do.

"It's been a difficult rally, especially the first two days," said Makinen in Australia. "We can make some new parts for Rally GB. The bigger gap between this rally (Rally Australia) and that rally will allow us to test more."

McRae took the standings lead from the four-time world champion in Australia with fifth place taking his total to 42 points, but Makinen is just one point behind. After his second place in Australia, Burns is lurking a further point behind in third place, and Makinen knows he'll have his work cut out when he takes on the British duo on home turf later this month.

"Obviously it's going to be a huge fight," he said. "We will naturally work extremely hard to take the championship with the new car."