Subaru expect to improve in Corsica

Petter Solberg and Stephane Sarrazin finished a distant seventh and eighth in the Spanish event, over three-and-a-half minutes behind winner Sebastien Loeb. The general consensus was that the fault lay with the Pirelli tyres and the way that the 2006 specification Impreza worked them on asphalt.

Sporting Director Luis Moya said that no effort had been spared since Catalunya.

"We have spent a lot of time in the build-up to the Tour de Corse analysing every aspect of the team's performance in the last rally, including the car, the drivers and the tyres," he said.

"We remain positive about the testing we did before Spain and continue to work closely with Pirelli to optimise results. We're very keen to compare the performance of the car and the tyres in Corsica and hope we'll gather more data to pinpoint steps forward."

Solberg hopes that the slightly different surface in Corsica will help Subaru and Pirelli.

"I think compared to Rally Spain the stages and the asphalt will suit us better," he said. "In the past the Corsican roads were more abrasive as the surface was much older, however nowadays there's not so much of the old Tarmac left.

"On the whole our car and tyres match the event very well."