Solberg excluded.

Subaru World Rally team leader, Petter Solberg was excluded from the Swedish Rally Sunday, an apt ending for the Norwegian as he was plagued with problems through-out the event.

Solberg's 'home' event began badly when a left-rear driveshaft broke after a heavy landing at the start of SS1. He ended the first day nearly six minutes off eventual winner, Marcus Gronholm. Although he made some progress over the remainder of the event, climbing back up the leaderboard, he hit more problems, with gearbox problems in SS11, and then an off in SS12. Sunday also saw further issues, when he dropped more than eight minutes on the penultimate stage after stalling at the start. A faulty starter motor delayed his re-start and this delay eventually led to his exclusion, as he didn't get away within the regulation 20 second period.

"The rally has been a complete disaster we only have had two good stages," he noted. "I just don't know what else to say. I'm trying to remain positive about things but it's certainly been a weekend to forget. Clearly we've got a lot of work to do now to get things back to normal. I want to thank everyone who supported us this weekend, there were so many Norwegian flags by the side of the road and I'm sorry we weren't able to get a better result."

Subaru team boss, David Lapworth meanwhile attempted to console the Norwegian, but he admitted that the whole team were also bitterly disappointed, especially as Solberg has yet to score, following his early exit from the season opening, Rallye Monte Carlo two weeks ago - when he had engine problems.

"This just hasn't been our rally and all of us in the team share Petter's disappointment and frustration," concluded Lapworth. "When they were able, Petter and [his team-mate] Chris [Atkinson] showed glimpses of the potential of the WRC2006 but, for a number of reasons, our overall performance was way below our expectations. The important thing is that we learn from what has happened this weekend and come out fighting in Mexico."