Solberg Plans Calm Start in Cyprus

Solberg is only one point behind WRC leader Sébastien Loeb in the title race, but he finished nearly a minute behind the Citroen driver on last week's Rally Italia,in Sardinia.

"I'll tackle the Cyprus Rally with a different approach," Solberg said. "I'm going to start calm, see where the level is and then go for maximum attack on Saturday. Of course we're going to try to win, but we know how difficult it is to do that these days.

"The rally is going to be very rough this year, but it depends on how much they've worked on the roads. It's always a hard rally, very rough and bumpy with lots of loose rocks.

Subaru World Rally Team Principal David Lapworth said he was also not concerned about winning the event.

"If we look at the Championship position, we need to keep calm, stay in control and maximise the points-haul over the next three rallies," Lapworth explained. "We must not focus too much on winning any event in particular.

"Cyprus will be the first really hot rough gravel rally with the new car and we're always a little nervous ahead of the extreme rallies, because there are so many things that can happen.

"You never know whether the event itself will throw up something new. There are some things that are difficult to simulate in testing. We can't close off 30km of road like we will have to run in Cyprus so we close off 5km and drive up and down the same road. That does not include all the combinations of rocks you might come across in the rally.

"You just hope that you can cope with them."