Panizzi: Fabia is a bit like 206 if you ask me.

Asphalt ace, Gilles Panizzi has revealed that he reckons the Skoda Fabia WRC is similar to the Peugeot 206 WRC.

Panizzi had a string of good results with the 206 and a few years back he was the guy to beat on asphalt, taking his first win for Peugeot on the Tour de Corse in 2000, before going on to have more success in 2001 in Sanremo and then notching up a hat-trick of victories on tarmac in 2002, when he completed a clean sweep in Corsica, Spain and Sanremo. His last victory came in Spain in 2003, when he again won for Peugeot, before joining Mitsubishi for 2004 and 2005. Following Mitsubishi's exit, he is now with Red Bull.

"You know, it's difficult," he replied when asked about the strengths of the Fabia at the recent Rally Catalunya. "The car is nice, but it's difficult to say. I have just driven three WRC cars: the 206, the Mitsubishi and the Fabia, which [I believe] is maybe like the 206."

As for his event in Spain itself at the weekend, the Frenchman eventually finished tenth overall, losing two places in the final stage after making a mistake and easing off too much. As such he missed out on any drivers' points, although he still scored three manufacturers' points for Red Bull, while his team-mate, Andreas Aigner finished 13th, to add two more to their tally for the event - their best to date after managing to score 3 points on the Rallye Monte Carlo.

"Overall this has been a good result," said Panizzi at the finish. "We had a bad opening day while we found the right set-up for the suspension and I spent too much time spinning. Since then everything has been OK and we have been able to climb the leaderboard. I did have some bad luck on the final day though when the mousse in my left front tyre exploded on SS14, so I had strong vibrations to the end of the stage, which lost us a lot of time. On SS16 I was pretty quick in the beginning before I deliberately eased off a bit, which apparently turned out to be a bit too much [and I was passed by Stephane Sarrazin and Mikko Hirvonen]."

Despite Panizzi's lapse, Red Bull team boss, Armin Schwarz was happy with the result, which saw them increase their points total to date to 8 points, 2 less than the Stobart VK team.

"A good performance by the entire team has given us back the result that escaped us on the final day in Sweden," concluded Schwarz. "It was most important that the many conversations with Gilles at the start were by all means met with success, he was motivated again for the second leg and drove really fast. In the end it once more just wasn't to be or he might have been able to defend that eighth place he held prior to the final stage and even get a point for the drivers' championship. The performance shown by Andreas meanwhile was very enjoyable, he continues to prove his talent and still has some potential left. We will schedule a day of testing before Corsica, where we will try to build on the knowledge we gained in Spain."