Solberg says it will be tough

Solberg, the defending World Champion, said: "This could well be the hardest rally I ever drive! I think on the recce I missed out about half the things I should have noted! It will be very tough indeed and I think there will be a few problems for a lot of people. The recce was quite tough as we were doing everything from scratch and there was not so much time to do it."

Some of his more experienced fellow former champions seemed a little more relaxed about the new loose-surface event, which has been brought into the championship this year as a replacement for the Sanremo rally in order to reduce the number of asphalt rallies on the calendar.

Citroen's double World Champion Carlos Sainz, who has won more WRC events than anyone else commented: "I think this will be a very good rally. There is an interesting mix of roads and speeds, which makes for a good challenge. For now everything is fine with the car, but we will see if we need to make any adjustments during the rally."

Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm - also a double World Champion also seems optimistic. "We had no problems on the shakedown. We just did a couple of runs and that was enough. The car feels quite good, but I do not really know what to expect from this event. I think it should suit me, but we will see."