Suzuki will be making its debut on gravel… cautiously

Sebastian Lindholm, who has been chosen to drive the new Suzuki SX4 – in preparation for 2008 – will aim to finish the Rally of Great Britain.

The Japanese team indeed had its track debut at the Corsica rally over 6 weeks ago, but with only one car available and only asphalt rallies, the team does not yet know how the SX4 will react on the gravel of the Wales GB Rally.

The director of Suzuki World Rally Team – Nobuhiro Tajima – stated regarding this: « Our mission in Great Britain will be exactly the same as it was in Corsica, which is to bring the car home, no matter the result we achieve… »

« Gravel tracks are a real challenge for us, because while we can approximately predict asphalt roads, it is much more complicated to do so for other tracks. »

« The GP rally is therefore very difficult, but we asked Sébastien [Lindholm] to remain cautious and gather as much experience and technical data as possible, » continued the Japanese.

Sébastien Lindholm has been a 7-time Finnish champion, he is a cousin of Gronholm and will make his first appearance in WRC, just like Nicolas Bernardi when he debuted the SX4 in Corsica.

“Up until now, our performance during the tests has been encouraging but there is still a lot of work to be done… that’s why we will be in Great Britain…”

The Finn concluded by stating that the most important thing during this rally will be the margin for improvement rather than the ranking result.