New ground for Subaru pair

Juha Kankkunen's first place on the Scandinavian event made him the most successful rally driver in history and lifted him to third in the drivers' championship, while second-placed Richard Burns is in fourth overall just five points behind.

Neither driver has competed in China before, so the race, which begins today, will be a chance for the pair to demonstrate their skills even further.

They will be backed by a 555 Subaru team lying second in the manufacturer's title race, 17 points behind Toyota, and keen to close the gap even further with only four rallies left.

Fortunately for Kankkunen and Burns, the team should be able to offer its experience on the event, having competed in past round of the Asia Pacific Championship.

The Impreza WRC99 is also performing better than ever. The team's chief engineer Christian Loriaux said, 'For the Subaru Impreza WRC99 to remain at the cutting edge of the latest technological developments, we invested a lot of time and effort earlier in the year developing and testing new.

'Our recent results show that this hard work is paying off and we have a real competitive advantage for the rest of the season.'

With no team orders at Subaru, Kankkunen and Burns will both be pushing hard in this unfamiliar territory.