Team talk - The problems of Panzerplatte.

Renowned as one of the most difficult stages of the Rallye Deutschland, the mammoth 35.42km Panzerplatte Ost, used as SS4, is challenge for both driver and co-driver alike.

Here Petter Solberg's co-driver Phil Mills explains what makes it so tricky...

''Panzerplatte Ost includes 91 junctions - all in one stage! That makes it the trickiest of the event by a long way,'' noted Mills, ''Its surface is also covered in gravel and dust, making it very slippery and very, very tricky from a driver's point of view.

''If you get slightly off line, you kick up clouds of dust, dirt and gravel, which you then have to contend with - and that's exactly what happened to us last year on SS11. We went just slightly off line on one of the Baumholder stages, quite literally three feet, and paid the price. If you leave the driving line on these stages then there's nowhere to go - you've got these great concrete blocks flanking the stage, in addition to drainage ditches, which together make it pretty horrendous.

''While the big stones wouldn't damage the tanks that normally use the tracks for training, when it comes to the rally car, they can certainly do a lot of damage!

''It's also a difficult stage for the co-driver - I've made 47 pages of pace notes for this one test. It's got the most surface changes of any in the entire WRC, including concrete, tarmac, old asphalt, new asphalt, broken concrete, mud, grass, cobblestones - you name it Panzerplatte Ost has got it. I think the only thing missing is a water splash! It's not the driver's favourite stage of the world championship, but it's certainly one of the most challenging.''