At the conclusion of the third and final day of racing at Rally Cyprus last week-end, the Petter Solberg World Rally Team received the Abu Dhabi Spirit of the Rally Award after Petter Solberg and Phil Mills clinched an impressive third place on the podium.

The award is granted by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority in order to recognise qualities of sportsmanship, teamwork and great effort on World Rally Championship rounds. When considering that PSWRT only have 11 persons on its roster, its third place finish in Cyprus appears all the more remarkable.

"I have the best team ever," Petter Solberg declared. "Everyone has been working flat out and shown a great passion for what they are doing. This award is for the whole team!"

The Cypriot achievement was hard-won as challenges appeared even before the rally itself began, with the team working against the clock to have the car ready in time. "They've all worked unbelievably hard to get us here (to the end of the Cyprus Rally)," said Solberg.

"It took the team 38 hours of solid work to get the car ready because the boat was late arriving in Cyprus," Mills explained, relating what became a stressful build-up to the event and applauding the job performed by everyone in the small start-up team.

Following Subaru's shock withdrawal from the WRC last December, 2003 champion Solberg set up his own privateer outfit in a hurry, recruiting former Subaru staff and showing a strong determination in continuing his World Rally Championship career.

After missing this year's opening round in Ireland, the Petter Solberg World Rally Team appeared in Norway for its inaugural run with a relatively old car: a 2001 Citroen Xsara.

With little testing beforehand and a few mechanical glitches, Solberg reached sixth place overall at his home event. Fitted with a new engine, the PSWRT Citroen Xsara fought up to third in Cyprus, ahead of Dani Sordo's factory Citroen C4.

"I know this is an old car and maybe Citroen would like to finish ahead," remarked Solberg, "but they should be proud about how good the Xsara still is."