Petter: I thought it would be alright... - wrong!

Subaru's Petter Solberg crashed out of the Rally Finland on Saturday, while trying to overhaul Mikko Hirvonen for the final place on the podium.

Solberg went into the day fourth and although he inched closer to Ford's number two driver following the first test, reducing the margin by 2.8 seconds to 6.6, it all went pear-shaped on Ouninpohja Lansi [SS11].

Hollywood's car drifted wide over a crest 700 metres from the start and slammed into a bank at 120kph. The impact spun the car around and launched it into a series of rolls. Solberg and co-driver Phil Mills were shaken but uninjured in the crash, however the Impreza was badly damaged in the off. Furthermore Solberg will not be able to re-start under the SupeRally on Sunday.

"We were coming into a long left-hand corner, went over a crest with a little under-steer and then hit a rock face on the right-hand side. I thought it would be alright, but the car spun around and we ended up rolling," said Solberg. "Phil and I are both okay, but the car was quite badly damaged."

Despite his mistake though, Solberg is already looking ahead to the next event, Subaru's home round in Japan and believes a podium is definitely within their grasp there.

"Even if it is obvious that my retirement has been disappointing, I am anyway content with the progress made by Subaru and with the Pirelli P Zero tyres. I'm still feeling positive about everything we have done so far and know we have taken something good from this weekend," he continued.

"We have found some improvements and we tried something in the first stage today which was quite positive too, however we still need to work on the consistency. We have a test coming up for Rally Japan now and we have identified some more areas to work on. I've got a good feeling about the next rally and I'm definitely not giving up at all. I feel strongly that also this year in Japan, as in 2005, I will have the opportunity to reach the podium."

Subaru sporting director, Luis Moya was also trying to look on the bright side, but the fact the second car, driven by Chris Atkinson, was dogged by technical problems, with gearbox issues on the first loop costing the Aussie over 12 minutes, did nothing to improve team morale.

"Today we had an early wake up call with both cars effectively being removed from the competition within the first two stages. Chris was first to suffer when a gear selection problem wasn't able to be repaired before leaving service, costing him any chance of a competitive finish. Petter then suffered a dramatic accident just as he looked set to challenge for a podium position," concluded Moya. "Despite this, we know good progress has been made with the car development though and, although Chris cannot achieve the result he deserved, tomorrow he will be able to test and learn from different setups."