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Solberg fighting for second

Petter Solberg may have handed over his WRC crown to Sebastien Loeb on last weekend's Rally de France, but the Subaru ace has no intention of relinquishing second place in the championship too

The Norwegian struggled on the Corsican asphalt routes and finished the rally a distant fifth. Ford's Markko Martin won the event to edge himself closer to second-placed Solberg, just nine points ahead, but the Norwegian is determined to hold on to the runners-up slot.

"Catalunya is a good event," said Solberg. "It's really well organised, with good crowds, a good atmosphere and nice wide, flowing roads. We'll go there and try to do the best we can. Despite the championship having been decided, I'm still motivated and want to get the highest result possible.

"I'm still in the fight for second place in the overall driver standings and am looking forward to defending my position. However, having seen Markko Martin's performance in Corsica, I know he'll be pushing hard for a good result in Spain too and I think he'll be the man to beat."

Subaru team boss David Lapworth admits he's not sure what to expect in Catalunya this weekend after the team struggled to match its rivals on the sealed-surface roads in Corsica. The team has not been able to carry out a great deal of work on the Impreza between rallies but Lpaworth believes the weather will be the greatest influencing factor this weekend.

"We learned a bit in Corsica, but in two weeks there's only a certain amount that you can do," Lapworth said. "We can certainly make the best of what we've got and have already made some changes to the set-up. We also learned about which tyres to choose for different conditions and how the new tyres and car work together. All those lessons will be applied in Spain and we'll go there to do our best. I think a lot will hang on the first day and how the weather works out.

"There can be a wide variation [in Catalunya] at this time of year. It could be cold and frosty early in the morning on the high stages, but by mid-afternoon it could be 25 degrees centigrade with warm sunshine. There's also a tendency for it to be foggy, and there were massive storms before the event last year, so you never know what to expect."

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