Rally round-up: Happy at Hyundai

It was Schwarz's first time in the Accent WRC2 since his move from Czech outfit Skoda, and the German said he was happy with his progress and praised the efforts of his new team.

"On the whole the car works well," said Schwarz. "The teamwork put in by the mechanics and the engineers to get the car exactly as I want it was amazing. We made suspension changes to help with tyre performance and are quite happy with our choices.

"We will have some more testing before Monte Carlo and after that we should definitely be able to set some better times."

Mitsubishi has announced that Finn Jani Paasonen will drive a third works Lancer WRC in Rally Sweden at the end of January, alongside regular drivers Alister McRae and Francois Delecour.

The 26-year-old won the 2000 Finnish Group N Championship in a Mitsubishi and the Ralliart team is hoping he can shine in the snows of Sweden, the second round of the 2002 campaign.

"Jani is a young, promising driver who has already shown potential and that he has the speed required to succeed," said team director John Easton. "It will be good to give him the opportunity to show what he can do as part of a manufacturer works team."