Solberg needs more time with new car

Solberg and his teammate Chris Atkinson each tested the car for two days on two separate occasions, while the rest of the development work has been conducted by Subaru's test driver Markko Martin.

Solberg said: "I'm very happy to be here with the new car, but maybe it would have been nice to have had some more time testing it before [the Acropolis]. But that's it, we are here now and we're all looking forward to this event."

Subaru's technical director David Lapworth admitted the timescale for the new car had been brought forward after positive results from early testing.

"It would have been much easier for us to leave [the debut] for a bit longer," said Lapworth. "But we have to ask ourselves why we're here. Are we frightened of the competition or are we here to win? We're here to win and that's why we're getting on with it.

"We've done a lot of testing and we've flattened our learning curve on the tests, but when you start a rally you start a whole new learning curve."

Both Subarus ran without problems at shakedown this morning. Atkinson was the faster of the two cars, posting a time 1.7 seconds slower than Dani Sordo's benchmark. Solberg was two tenths slower than his teammate.