Subaru positive despite problems

The team now believe that the oil loss that stopped Solberg after SS5 on Friday was caused by damage from a rock. Prior to the problem, the Norweigan had led the rally from the start, winning all three of the opening loop of stages, and then resisting Sebastien Loeb's charge in the afternoon.

Chris Atkinson continues to run strongly in the remaining Subaru, having moved up from third to second when his teammate retired. He is 19 seconds behind new leader Loeb, but extended his advantage over the chasing Mikko Hirvonen and Dani Sordo in Friday's final stages.

"We can take a good deal of encouragement from the team's performance today," said team boss Richard Taylor.

"For the first five stages we were leading the rally and it went very well for us, realistically, perhaps better than we might have hoped with a brand new car.

"We can't be sure of the cause of Petter's oil leak yet, but rock damage to the oil cooler appears to be the most likely explanation.

"We always knew there was going to be more work to do to the new car, and we expect it will take three or four rallies to get the best out of it, but we've clearly got the fundamentals right. We've shown today that we have the speed to lead rallies. Now we've got to convert that into results."

Solberg reported that the car had been 'perfect' prior to the oil problem.

"Everything was perfect until about 12km before the finish line of SS5 when the oil light started to blink," he said.

"I pushed on, but at the end of the stage we had no oil pressure and, it turned out, no oil. And that was it.

"It looks like there was a tiny bit of damage to the oil cooler, but that was enough to drain the system.

"Overall, it's important to note that we had the winning pace, even on the repeated stages, and things like tyre wear and general feeling were very, very good."

Atkinson shared his teammate's positivity, but was also ruing the time lost on stages where he had been less comfortable with the car.

"I haven't had such a good feeling in the car for a long time, and the pace we've shown today is really good news for the whole team at Subaru," he said.

"It's a bit of a shame that we gave away a bit of time earlier today, but that's just down to fine tuning the car. For some stages it's been good, on others not so good, but that's completely understandable when you consider how fresh this car is."