Suzuki scores best-ever result on home territory

Rally Japan has been a resounding success for Suzuki, with the cars claiming their best-ever results on home territory. At the end of this challenging event, up-and-coming Swede P-G Andersson finished in fifth place while his Finnish team mate Toni Gardemeister was sixth. As well as scoring driver and manufacturer points with both cars, the Suzuki World Rally Team set its first fastest stage time on Saturday and was never out of the top six times throughout the whole of Sunday. The SX4 WRCs were perfectly reliable from start to finish, despite tough conditions and harsh weather on this brand new event that challenged all of the top runners.

The final day of Rally Japan took in nine stages and nearly 100 competitive kilometres in wet and muddy conditions. The Suzuki drivers found exactly the right blend of speed and consistency to capitalise upon all the progress made to date with the SX4 WRC, which is still to complete its first full season of competition.

Shusuke Inagaki, Suzuki World Rally Team Director: "We are all very proud of the achievements of the Suzuki World Rally Team here at home in Japan! An important thing to remember is that the rally route was brand new for this year, which meant that nobody started with any real advantage in terms of experience. This proves that when the conditions are equal, we can fight with some of the frontrunners. Of course we still have a long way to go and much to learn, but this is the clearest indication yet that everything is heading in the right direction."