The World Rally Championship is about to conclude its current season with only three remaining events. Ford is currently leading in the manufacturer's championship standings with Marcus Gronholm leading all drivers. Citroen is second on the standings and Sebastien Loeb is trailing Gronholm by a few points. Playing catch-up to the two teams is the Subaru World Rally Team.

The said team is fielding three cars since the midway point of the season when Xevi Pons was given a ride by Subaru. At the recently concluded Rallye de France, the team was still unable to win over the top two teams. The third and final leg of the event, which is the most crucial, brought mixed fortunes to the team.

Petter Solberg had a good run and had the chance to finish better than fifth. Chris Atkinson meanwhile had a problem-free day although he was not able to improve his standings finishing in the sixth place. Xevi Pons has the worst day among the Subaru drivers as his car's tires were punctured twice in the last leg of the event. The Spaniard eventually finished eighth on his Subaru motor mount -equipped Subaru Impreza.

Although the three drivers failed to get to the top three, they all earned points for the team. "The team are pleased to finish with all three cars in points-scoring positions here in Corsica," said Subaru World Rally Team's Managing Director Richard Taylor. "Chris and Petter were able to achieve a top-three stage time each, however we clearly have more work to do to fully exploit the potential of our 2007 car and get back to achieving regular podium results."

The team will now be using the remainder of the season to work on their car to make it better in preparation for the next season. And with the changes made to their current car, the performance of the three drivers can be expected to improve over the last three events of the season.

Former World Rally Champion Petter Solberg pointed out that the changes they have made on their cars have made it better. "I thought the car felt better today and easier to drive which is a good step forward for us," said Solberg. The driver though lamented the lack of speed of their car on flat surfaces. "The speed is still not quite there and we are struggling on the very flat surfaces. Unfortunately for us the stages today were mostly flat so weren't able to catch Jari-Matti Latvala, although it was a good battle to the final stage."

The veteran driver is now looking forward to driving in Japan, Subaru's home turf. "Overall this weekend has been good for the team and I am feeling more confident with the car which is important going into Japan next," said Solberg.

Xevi Pons, despite his disappointing punctures, is looking forward with much gusto as he pointed out that the car has no problem at all. "Looking at today it was not good for us, but for this weekend as a whole I am happy. The car has had no problems, which is important, and we have been able to concentrate on developing my style rather than making changes to the car which has helped me a great deal. Leg one was hard for us, and yesterday was good. This morning was tough again, but this afternoon was much better. Xavier and I are developing our style with the car, and a championship point for us is very positive."