Solberg already looking to 2006.

Having crashed out of the 2005 edition of Rally Catalunya on SS3, Petter Solberg rejoined the event overnight, if only to gain an insight into the stages that could be used when the event switches to an earlier slot next season.

The second leg of the 2005 rally was due to start with the 20km classic pass from El Lloar to La Figuera to the west of host city Salou, but too many spectators were crowded into the stage and, on safety grounds, the organisers took the decision that it should be cancelled. Solberg was among those to be handed a nominal time, before going on to claim the 14th fastest pass of SS8, which ran normally.

The Norwegian, however, wasn't too happy with his performance, even if he knew that any chance of a good finish had evaporated with his first day incident.

"That wasn't so good," he sighed at the day's first service halt, "We tried some suspension changes to try and seek some improvements that were not so successful, but we've got many more ideas to try. It's important we do this as it's only a few months before we'll be back here next year. We'll keep trying as it's useful to do this under rally conditions."

With team-mate Stephane Sarrazin having rolled out of the rally on Friday night, the leading Subaru entry is now being piloted by Aussie Chris Atkinson, who finally got himself into the top ten stage times after coming to grips with the Spanish tarmac.

Atkinson started first on SS7, which gave him a slight advantage on the clean road. He recorded a competitive time, but the advantage of this position was negated when the stage was cancelled. While all remaining crews, other than the five that had completed the test before its cancellation, drove the route at a slower speed and were awarded a nominal time of 11min 39.0secs, Atkinson's time was upheld.

The Aussie then finished the eighth test in eighth position, just 12secs slower than pacesetter Gigi Galli, moving himself two further places up the leaderboard, to 13th.

"I'm pleased with my performance this morning," Atkinson admitted, "Overnight, I was giving a lot of thought to the areas where I could improve my driving and the combination of a bigger understanding of that the car can do and building confidence is where I think the improvement came. I made a few small changes last night, which has perhaps helped too. For now, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and we'll see what will happen."