The Final Rally of the Year -Wales Rally GB

Preview: Wales Rally GB

With three of the four championships already decided, subject to the publication of the final results by the FIA and the fourth potentially decided before the recce starts tomorrow (Tuesday), it looks like everyone will be off the reins and aiming to end the season on a high at this weekend's Wales Rally GB.

The Driver's championship was sewn up by Sebastien Loeb in Australia, the Manufacturer's by Ford in New Zealand, the P-WRC by Nasser Al-Attiyah in NZ and pending the outcome of an appeal against his exclusion from the last J-WRC round in Turkey, PG Andersson may already be J-WRC champion. The British Rally Championship, which this event is a qualifying round for is also already settled, in Mark Higgins' favour, so every team is going to let its drivers run their rally and demonstrate just what they can achieve on the likely wet and cold Welsh stages.

With Sebastien Loeb in Wales for the recce only, the smart money will be on one of the BP-Fords for the win, with Marcus Gronholm favourite. Only Loeb, Gronholm and team-mate Mikko Hirvonen have won events this year. Buoyed by winning the manufacturer's title two weeks ago in NZ, the Blue Oval boys are going to be at each others throats, with no need to play any game other than the one which involves them winning. Team Boss Malcolm Wilson has given both drivers free reign to challenge for the win but each realises that their most likely competition will be from within the team.

However, the same smart money would also not bypass the Subaru World Rally Team. It has an impressive record on the event, having won the last four years consecutively with Petter Solberg at the wheel. This has not been the team's most successful season so far but the last couple of rallies have hinted at an improvement and the team is hoping it can translate that into success in the Welsh forests. According to Solberg, it's a big attacked from the start of the first stage, as there's nothing to lose. Chris Atkinson has only done the event once before and is understandably not as bullish as his team-mate but hopes winter rally experience down under will help.

Kronos Total Citroen will again field Xevi Pons and Dani Sordo with Loeb watching from the sidelines. Pons will inevitably be riding high on a wave of confidence, after a hatrick of fourth places in the last three events and tackles his fourth Rally GB this weekend. He first competed in Group N in 2003, in a Super 1600 in '04 and a Xsara WRC in '05 while Sordo will be tackling his first running of an event for the sixth time. However, he's also showed a good grasp of new events and is definitely getting his confidence back after a run of poor results in the middle of the season.

The OMV Peugeot Norway team driver Manfred Stohl will be looking to continue his recent run of form, standing on the podium twice in the last two events. Stohl currently lays just one point behind Sordo in the Driver's table and has already said he will be targeting fifth in the 2006 Drivers' championship for this weekend. Henning Solberg, on the other hand, has had two events to forget, crashing in Australia and rolling in New Zealand but also has a Citroen in his sights; that of Xevi Pons. The Norwegian is three points behind and feels seventh in the overall standings is possible.

Red Bull Skoda makes a welcome return in Wales, having sat out the two previous long-haul events. Its two usual drivers will be taking part, Harri Rovanpera and Andreas Aigner, Aigner looking to repeat his impressive performance from Germany earlier this year when he demonstrated his best pace so far. Rovanpera will also be looking to show what he and the Fabia WRC can do on an event he knows well and has enjoyed success in recent years, finishing fourth in 2005.

In the Stobart VK Ford M-Sport camp, Matthew Wilson will be looking forward to a return to home soil, which should give him the opportunity to show his true pace. However, he will not have the easiest of starts, with a one-minute penalty already in place thanks to a speeding infringement earlier in the year. Jari-Matti Latvala will drive the second 2006-specification Ford Focus RS and will be fired up after winning the Production car World Rally Championship category of the last two events. Norwegian 17 year-old sensation Andreas Mikkelsen will also be running as part of the Stobart team, while recently-crowned BRC champion Mark Higgins will use Steve Perez' Focus WRC.

There are also privately entered Skoda Fabia WRCs for Francois Duval and Jan Kopecky while Gareth McHale also makes a return to the WRC in a Focus WRC.

The Junior World Rally Championship makes its final visit to the stages for the season this weekend and things are a little more uncertain in that field. Leader PG Andersson was excluded from the category in Turkey for a servicing infringement and an appeal against the decision was lodged. The appeal will be heard today (Monday 27 November) and any decision announced tomorrow. If the decision is reversed and his result reinstated, then he automatically becomes champion, again subject to publication of the final results by the FIA.

However, if the appeal is turned down and the decision stands, then six drivers will fight for the title, including Andersson, Urmo Aava, Patrick Sandell, Guy Wilks, Jozef Beres and Kris Meeke. But the margins between them are so close that realistically, each will be challenging for the win to ensure they take the crown. With typical Rally GB weather in store, then the advantage is bound to go to the home talent, with Wilks and Meeke first and second the last time the J-WRC featured on GB but it's by no means a foregone conclusion. In the Rookie category, it's a straight fight between Barry Clark and Andreas Cortinovis; whoever is ahead in the event becomes the Rookie champion.

Further back is a host of Group N runners, this event forming the last round of the British Rally Championship. There is also the debut of the Toyota Super 2000 driven by Alister McRae, the car's first competition outside South Africa and only the second S2000 car to appear on the WRC. Run by the RED team, McRae spent two days testing the car, changing its characteristics to suit the UK gravel and hopes to be in amongst the front-running group N cars, the class he will be in.

Other names likely to be cropping up in Group N include former BRC champion Gwyndaf Evans, David Higgins, Jonny Milner and Niall McShea, along with P-WRC regulars, Mirco and Loris Baldacci.

Based once again at the Felindre service park near Swansea, the event returns to its traditional winter slot in December and with it, equally typical weather; wet and cold with short days. The route has been changed since the last running to accommodate the shorter daylight hours and there are also two new sections of road, one to avoid a residential property and one on the Epynt military ranges, including a new jump, 'Paras' Leap'. The event also features a superspecial in the Millennium stadium on Saturday evening, which will see the running stop for a one-hour MPH '06 show featuring a team rally challenge, stunts and demonstrations.

-FIA WRC