Petter Solberg has praised his mechanics after they fitted a new clutch in record time so that he could complete the final two stages of the Rallye Deutschland on Sunday, when like Marcus Gronholm, he had to deal with a cow on the very last test.

Speaking at the finish, 'Hollywood' was delighted to have got to the end in his Impreza WRC car and while he had a tough start to the event in Germany, after hitting a rock in SS5 and damaging his steering - something that had a knock on affect for day 2 as well, in the end he definitely finished on a good note.

Indeed on the final day he not only gained a place, moving up to finish sixth overall, but he also set top four times in every single test and was even second fastest in SS19, Moselwein 2, despite having to swerve to avoid a cow standing in the road 9 kilometres in.

"I had a big moment in the last test. There was a cow on the track and I just managed to avoid it," he recounted. "I had a lot of fun today though.

"The job that the guys did in service - I mean, 11 minutes, gearbox and clutch; try to beat that! It's incredible. I just want to say thank you to all the team, it was just brilliant.

"We have seen that Chris [Atkinson - my team-mate] has done really good stage times this weekend. Today we had a lot of good stage times too and the car is working very, very well. It is very encouraging for the rest of the year," he summed-up.

For the record, the Subaru WRT reported that it would normally take a group of 'experienced' technicians around 15 minutes to fit a new clutch, however in the end Petter's men did it in 10 minutes 29 seconds and as such he only pick up a 10 second penalty prior to the final two stages.

Interestingly though, as he was only 7.6 seconds off Skoda privateer, Jan Kopecky in fifth at the end, those 10 seconds were still crucial.