Solberg: New car best ever

Norwegian Solberg gave the car its debut WRC outing on last weekend's Rally Mexico and, having set nine fastest stage times out of 15 stages, was leading the event until an electrical fault meant his Impreza refused to start at the end of leg one.

After pushing the car into service, Solberg incurred five minutes and 40 seconds of penalties, eventually finishing fourth.

Despite this, he said: "This car is better than I had expected, a real improvement. To come here and set the times which we have done is fantastic. It shows how good the car is.

"The best thing about the new car is the speed we have in the fast stages. It works so well when we get to high speeds. It's things like the aerodynamic changes which have helped here. I'm feeling very positive about the way the car is working."

Subaru team boss David Lapworth was more cautious about the car's performance. "We'll have to wait until the next round in New Zealand when the Ford and Citroen are out to see how we are performing and where the benchmark is," he explained.

"Having said that, we are very pleased with how the car has run for the first time, and it's reassuring to see that everything Petter predicted in the test has come through on the rally. The improvements have come from lots of small changes. It's not one big thing."

The team plans to make more changes, including tweaks to set-up and gaining more power from the engine. Solberg's team-mate Mikko Hirvonen finished fifth in Mexico.