Howarth: We need to match pace of Marcus and Seb.

Subaru World Rally team operations director Paul Howarth has said that he is 'hopeful' they will be able to benefit from all their testing over the summer break to be able to challenge Kronos Citroen and BP Ford during the second half of the year.

Speaking to the official SWRT team website, www.swrt.com, Howarth added that while he knows it won't be easy, he was pleased with their form in Sardinia and Greece, the final two events prior to the summer break, where they had already started to show progress.

"We've done a lot of testing in this period between rallies. By the end of the summer, we'll have done three major tests, which is a lot for any team, and hopefully we'll see the benefits in coming events," he stated.

"[Furthermore while] it will take some time to turn things around we showed in the last three events that things have already improved. It was only the loss of two tyres in Sardinia and an unfortunate road accident in Greece that stopped us challenging for the top two."

Despite his optimism though, he doesn't expect them to have an easy ride during second half of the year: "The second half of the season will be very challenging, with technically difficult events, tough logistical operations and paired events," he continued.

"Don't underestimate Cyprus and Turkey, or the slippery roads of New Zealand and Australia. Rally GB will also be phenomenally demanding. In early December you could get snow, ice or rain. What we need to do in the second part of the year is deliver consistently fast stage times and be in a position where we can push the opposition.

"Marcus Gronholm and Seb Loeb are both highly consistent and we need to be at that same pace."