Motorsport: Solberg orders up preferred weather conditions for rally

Wet next Friday but fine for the following two days - that is the weather forecast last year's winner of Rally New Zealand, Peter Solberg, is banking on.

The Norwegian Subaru driver arrived in Auckland yesterday in hot sunshine, not the conditions he wants when he leads the world championship field away next week near Paparoa.

As leader of the championship after wins in Sweden and Mexico, Solberg will be first on the road for the first day and on dry roads would be disadvantaged by having to clear a racing line in the gravel for his rivals to exploit.

"If it's rain, there's no problem," he said. "If it's completely dry I will struggle. But we have to deal with it as best as we can.

"This is a rally where if you have a mistake you lose a lot of time and it's difficult to get it back again, compared with Cyprus or Greece where you can gain back a minute.

"Everything depends on the first day for me - how much I lose if it's dry and if it's wet the plan is to gain time."

Solberg debuted a new Subaru Impreza in Mexico and, although he won, he was not completely comfortable with the car.

"It's good and, of course, we won, so it's a bit strange to fault anything. But we have to have the right feeling and I didn't have that. Hopefully for this rally they've done something with the rear geometry."

Last year he beat Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm by 5.9s after taking the lead with one stage to go.

He expects another tough battle with his fellow Finn and the other Peugeot driver, Markko Martin, who is second in the championship.