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Solberg looks to bounce back

Subaru's Petter Solberg has said he is glad that his Rallye de France nightmare has come to an end, after a weekend where he failed to make it into the points

As Kronos Citroen's Sebastien Loeb and Ford's Marcus Gronholm fought for victory, Solberg was left unable to make any impact as his car and tyre combination proved uncompetitive on asphalt.

And after coming home a lowly 11th, he admitted that his sole focus was on returning to the front of the field in the next event in Argentina.

"I'm actually glad it's over," said the former champion. "I tried everything I could, but we have a lot of work to do before we are fast enough on this surface. The focus now is the next rally.

"The result here has made me more determined to get a good finish in Argentina; I'm hungrier that ever to go for a win. I will not be playing at all in Argentina, I promise you."

Subaru's sporting director Luis Moya admitted that his team had work to do with tyre supplier Pirelli to understand their asphalt issues - but felt confident that they could still challenge on gravel events.

"Our performance this weekend has been below our expectations," he explained. "Clearly we have work to do to increase our speed on asphalt and together with Pirelli we will continue to look for ways to improve.

"Fortunately for us, there are eleven more rallies left in this season. Our target for the next events is to go for victory."

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