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Paasonen gets Rally GB Fabia

Jani Paasonen will drive a third Skoda Fabia WRC on Rally GB next month in the wake of his excellent sixth place in Rally Finland earlier this month. The Finn scored the car's best result to date on what had originally been scheduled as a one-off arrangement on his home event and is rewarded with a further chance

Paasonen has driven Mitsubishi and Ford WRC cars before, but has yet to find a permanent berth at the top level. His performance on Rally Finland, where he out-shone both Skoda's regular drivers Armin Schwarz and Toni Gardemeister looks to have given him his best shot yet at securing a top job.

Skoda motorsport chief Martin Muehlmeier commented: "I hope that we can repeat the kind of result he and Skoda Motorsport achieved in Finland. He has the same instructions - drive fast and safely."

Schwarz and Gardemeister continue in their regular cars as Skoda seeks to develop the Fabia while it decides whether or not to commit to a full WRC programme in 2005 after spending the first half of this season working on the cars before bringing them out for a limited challenge in the second half of the year.

Skoda heads to Germany this weekend for Rally Deutschland with three cars for Schwarz, Gardemeister and Czech driver Roman Kresta - another young charger in search of a top drive.

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