Henning Solberg has moved back up to sixth position in the World Rally Championship standings after scoring only his second career podium on the Rally Japan.

An impressive performance for the Norwegian on what is his first visit to the Japanese event, it is his best result on gravel having previously scored a third place finish in the Rally of Norway earlier in the year.

Although benefiting from the myriad of retirements on the events, third nonetheless signals the end of a difficult run of form for Solberg having failed to score in the previous four rallies. Nonetheless, the Stobart VK driver is back up to sixth place now to be the leading independent runner, while he is also just four points behind his brother Petter.

While he was thrilled with the result, Solberg admits that the rally had been one of the most difficult he had ever attempted.

"I am really delighted with this rally and it is an incredible result to come here for my first time and finish on the podium; we are both so happy. I had a good feeling with the car right from the start and it was working really well on the gravel stages.

"It wasn't an easy rally and I had to take some risks on the first day to get fast times on stages that I didn't know. I tried to push hard when I could but also not to make any mistakes and it was a balance.

"To finish third here is more than I could have hoped for and we have collected a high number of points for both the driver's championship and also for the Stobart team."