The shortest leg of the rally, Sunday offered the drivers a combination of both new and old. With a return to the Mosel vineyard stages of Dhrontal and Moselwein, the routes were the same as those used in 2006, albeit with small changes to sections of the road surface, which altered grip characteristics.

On the other hand, the superspecial Circus Maximus Trier was an entirely new stage through the cobbled and narrow streets of central Trier.  

An early morning 10-minute service kicked off leg three, the cars moving swiftly on to the first visit of the day to Dhrontal. With the sun not yet having broken through the cloud, air and asphalt temperatures were low, making tyre choice as important as it was on leg two. Running as sixth car on the road, Atkinson was first through for the team.

His choice of a hard-compound slick tyre worked well and he set the second-fastest time. Xevi was next, on a softer slick tyre, but his encouraging rally came to a premature end after 6km when his car suffered an engine problem which meant he could go no further. Petter, on the same compound tyre as Chris, felt that the car was "working brilliantly", and set the fourth fastest time.

Fastest time: Duval (Citroen) 6m 59.2s

Running along the banks of the mosel river, the majority of the 18km test was based on narrow vineyard tracks. The combination of a rough, abrasive surface and lots of tight and tricky junctions again made tyre choice critical on the longest stage of the day.

Just 1.5km from the end of the stage, Chris Atkinson’s great run came to an end when a mistake under braking led to a collision with a wall. Atkinson’s Impreza received damage to its front-right corner which forced the Australian to stop.

Petter was fourth fastest, closing to Kopecky in sixth overall despite stalling at a hairpin. "The car is very good now, and I am far more comfortable in it than I was yesterday. We are closing on fifth position overall which is good," he said.

Fastest time: Duval (Citroen) 10m 40.3s

Rally Deutschland's new Superspecial stage ran along the narrow cobbled streets of downtown Trier, and around the ancient Roman gateway to the city, the Porta Nigra.

Petter’s confidence in the car continued and, cheered on by thousands of spectators, he recorded the third fastest stage time. Solberg's time enabled him close the gap on sixth-place Jan Kospesky to just seven seconds.

In a change to the the original format, organisers added a 10-minute service after the Superspecial, so crews could prepare for the final two stages of the rally.

Fastest time: Duval (Citroen) 3m 11.4s

Solberg’s Impreza WRC2007 was fitted with a new clutch at the pre-stage service. Thanks to the expertise of his technicians, a job which would normally take around than 15 minutes was completed in 10m 29s and Solberg collected only a 10-second penalty.

On the stage, he was on sparkling form and set the fourth fastest time. That performance, and problems for Citroen driver Toni Gardemeister, moved him up to sixth place overall.

Fastest time: Duval (Citroen) 6m 53.4s

With the end almost in sight, Petter Solberg continued to push hard, and completed the final stage with an excellent second-fastest time. The fact that he had to swerve to avoid a cow standing in the road at the 9km point make the feat even more impressive.

Although he closed the gap on fifth placed Jan Kopesky, he was not able to take the place, so ended the rally sixth to collect points in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships.

Sebastien Loeb was the rally winner, with Francois Duval second after a last stage upset for Ford, when Marcus Gronholm crashed and dropped two places to fourth.

Fastest time: Duval (Citroen) 10m 32.7s  

Quotes Team Quote  

Subaru World Rally Team managing director Richard Taylor: "Looking at this weekend as a whole, it has been a positive rally. The overall results don’t reflect the improvements in the cars, but of course our stage times have been very encouraging.

Chris put in some great performances including three stage wins. Today we have got the car right for Petter and he too has been able to produce good pace.

Xevi had a strong weekend on his first asphalt rally with the Subaru World Rally Team, lying within his target of top eight overall, and it was unfortunate that he was unable to complete the event due to engine troubles.

We can certainly go on to the following three asphalt rallies confident that we can be very competitive there. It’s a reflection of all the hard team-work that we’ve been doing over the last couple of months, and overall we can come away from this weekend with a positive feeling and look forward to the rest of the season."

Car Number 7 Petter Solberg: "I had a lot of fun today. The job that the guys did in service today. I mean, 11 minutes, gearbox and clutch; try to beat that! It’s incredible. I just want to say thank you to all the team, it was just brilliant.

We have seen that Chris has done really good stage times this weekend. Today we had a lot of good stage times, the car is working very well and it is very encouraging for the rest of the year."

Car Number 8 Chris Atkinson: "Yesterday was a great day and it meant a lot to me and the team to win those stages, so we went out today looking for more wins.

The team are working so hard, so it is great to be able to deliver this performance, but unfortunately today I just pushed a little too hard. When you’re in ninth place as we were, it’s maybe better to take these risks and show what Subaru can do rather than settle into a steady pace.

Overall we have shown the car to be quick on asphalt this weekend, so it is very encouraging for the remaining sealed surface events this year."

Car Number 20 Xevi Pons: "I’m sorry we weren’t able to complete the stages today because we had a good feeling in the car up to that point. Overall I think it’s been a positive weekend for us.

We have improved steadily every day, and the speed is good – especially as this is our first asphalt rally with Subaru. I like the car a lot, and I’m certainly looking forward to the other asphalt rallies this year."

Tyre Quote BFGoodrich representative Didier Martin: "Subaru was the only team to have nominated and used the full range of asphalt tyres on Rally Germany, from the g-Force Profiler 0+ (soft) to the g-Force profiler 2+ (hard).

And with three stage wins from Chris on three different compounds we are pleased with the performance of the Subaru/BFGoodrich combination. The performance also confirms the team’s progress on asphalt as seen on Rally Monte-Carlo.

We have three days of testing planned in September and are looking forward to the forthcoming asphalt rallies in Spain, Corsica and Ireland."

-swrt-