Solberg tops warm-up times

The pair is tied on 71 points, and Solberg proved he will be up for the fight with a time of two minutes and 3.1 seconds round the warm-up stage.

Gronholm, competing in his last rally for Peugeot before joining Ford next season, was only six tenths of a second behind, however, on the short test stage in Mundaring, just outside the rally base in Perth.

Daniel Carlsson, who is back in the Peugeot team after Nicolas Bernardi completed his drive in the second car for the last two events, was third fastest.

Chirs Atkinson was fourth quickest, in his home event, and he will be favoured for a strong points finish. Francois Duval was the top Citroen finisher in fifth, ahead of Harri Rovanpera.

Skoda's Armin Schwarz had a bad start to his final rally before retiring, damaging his car heavily in an off on the shakedown test.

Telstra Rally Australia shakedown times

 1.  Solberg       Subaru      2:03.1
 2.  Gronholm      Peugeot     2:03.7
 3.  Carlsson      Peugeot     2:04.8
 4.  Atkinson      Subaru      2:05.2
 5.  Duval         Citroen     2:05.9
 6.  Rovanpera     Mitsubishi  2:05.9
 7.  Stohl         Citroen     2:06.0
 8.  Loeb          Citroen     2:06.5
 9.  Kresta        Ford        2:06.5
10.  Gardemeister  Ford        2:06.7
11.  McRae         Skoda       2:07.9
12.  Galli         Mitsubishi  2:07.9
13.  Warmbold      Ford        2:08.0
14.  Schwarz       Skoda       2:10.3
15.  Sola          Ford        2:10.4
16.  Pons          Citroen     2:10.5