After a year's sabbatical from the FIA World Rally Championship, MMC returned last month to claim sixth position in the Rallye Monte-Carlo. The all-French crew of Gilles and Herve Panizzi will be joined by Finns Kristian Sohlberg and Kaj Lindstroem for the Swedish Rally, and the team's focus will be to build on its successful debut performance in Monte-Carlo.

Thirty-eight-year-old Gilles Panizzi has only previously contested the event once (2002) so this fast and snowy event will not only be new to the Lancer WRC04, but will also pose a good challenge to the Frenchman. Despite a points-scoring finish with the Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports team in Monte-Carlo last weekend, Gilles is totally realistic about the team's chances in Sweden with little if any time for further development.

"For me, I have less experience in this rally because I have only done it one time," commented Gilles. "Sweden is too close after Monte-Carlo for any further development and it's difficult for the engineers to improve the car or to adapt to different solutions for this event. I think if we can finish the Monte, we can finish the Swedish Rally though. I will be looking to Kristian for his very good experience in this rally and I hope we can do the maximum of kilometers to learn even more."

Team-mate Kristian Sohlberg, who is competing with co-driver Kaj Lindstroem for the first time, has three Swedish outings to his name, all of which have been in Mitsubishi machinery. Despite retiring in his first event (2001), he won the Production Car World Rally Championship category the following year and was 12th overall in the team's WRC2 car in 2003.

"I'm looking forward to the rally as you might say it's my first event as a real works driver," commented Kristian. "We are still lacking time with testing but we were all very pleased to see Gilles get the car to the finish in Monte-Carlo and claim points. This is good for everyone and helps the engineers gain more data for the on-going development work. Our objective in Sweden will be to go for the finish and of course it is a good event for me to start with the team. If the car works as we hope, I think we can do some decent times and maybe surprise a few people in some stages."

The Swedish Rally also marks the first round of the 2004 FIA Production Car World Rally Championship. In this season's series, Mitsubishi will be represented by former Junior World Rally Champion "Dani" Sola, and "Gigi" Galli, who will both also be driving the Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports team's Lancer WRC04 on selected rounds of the World Rally Championship. Finland's Jani Paasonen, a former factory driver with Mitsubishi, has also chosen the previously all-conquering Lancer Evolution as his challenger for the season, along with 2000 Production Car World Rally Champion Manfred Stohl. Japan's Fumio Nutahara, a long-time Mitsubishi campaigner, has also registered for the first time.

For daily updates on the Swedish Rally-from the shakedown on February 5 to the final leg on February 8-see Mitsubishi Motors' website at:

Daily Reports: www.mitsubishi-motors.com/motorsports/e/04wrc/round2/index.html
Race Photos: www.mitsubishi-motors.com/motorsports/e/04wrc/round2/daily.html