McRae to return with Skoda

Nissan Dakar Rally star and former WRC champion Colin McRae will drive a Skoda Fabia on his return to the world rally championship in this weekend's Rally Great Britain.

Nissan Dakar Rally star and former WRC champion Colin McRae will drive a Skoda Fabia on his return to the world rally championship in this weekend's Rally Great Britain.

The Scot, who is competing on his home event with Skoda after an 18-month sabbatical, has notched up over 800 km of test mileage during the last week.

McRae started the week with a marathon three-day test on forest stages in the south-west of Scotland, during which he completed 700 km of running with few problems. He then spent Friday and Saturday recceing and driving the course car on the Park Systems Rally national event to get back up to speed with preparing pace notes and working with co-driver Nicky Grist. The pair haven't worked together since they parted ways after the 2002 Propecia Rally New Zealand.

"I'm very happy with the Fabia," McRae said. "It feels really nice to drive and I was able to be up to full speed very quickly. It responds well to input and everything we've tried has changed the car in the way we expected so I'm confident that we will have a good setup for the rally. The latest Reiger suspension has made it very stable in all conditions and the new Michelin BTO tyre was faster and more consistent than the older constructions.

"I still can't say what kind of result we can expect. We had no comparison times to work with at the test so I think everyone will be keeping a close eye on the times at the end of the first stage this Friday! I'm not so worried about our initial results but I'd like to think that we can progress as the event goes on and be setting some really good times by Sunday," the Scot added.

Meanwhile, another former champion, Subaru's Petter Solberg, said his hopes of taking a fourth straight Rally Great Britain victory were slim. The Norwegian has had a difficult season this year and hasn't been in the winners' circle since the Corona Rally Mexico at the end of March.

Solberg - who bared his heart about his lean season on his personal website earlier this week - has had a hard time keeping up with the Citroën of reigning champion and current title favourite Sebastien Loeb. The biggest indicator in Solberg and Subaru's turn of form, however, is the fact that Peugeot's double world champion Marcus Gronholm is now in line to finish second in the drivers' title standings after a solid year in his 307 WRC.

"I'm really looking forward to Rally GB," said Solberg. "We have won the event many times - I won my first-ever rally there and then a year later I won the championship, so I enjoy it very much. We seem to have a lot of support there too, no doubt because (co-driver) Phil (Mills) is a local!

"This year will be different from other years though. The objective is to win, but we have to be realistic. It has been a difficult season for us, and we have to hope that we have more success than we have had at other gravel events. That said, we'll go out to try and win, and take whatever comes at us," he added.

Solberg will be partnered by Australian rookie Chris Atkinson and French asphalt ace Stephane Sarrazin as part of a bumper three-car Subaru entry. Atkinson has been nominated alongside Solberg to score manufacturers' championship points.