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Subaru World Rally Team's Chris Atkinson finished his debut year in the World Rally Championship in style with a fourth place on the final Leg of Rally Australia, only six seconds away from a podium finish. The result is the 25-year-old's second top four finish since joining the team at the start of the year and also equalled Ross Dunkerton's 1993 effort as the highest placed local driver in the Australian round of the World Championship. Atkinson was the dominant driver throughout the weekend, recording the fastest time on nine of the 26 stages, four more than any other driver, taking his number of stage wins for the year to 15. The only drivers to win more stages throughout the year are world champions Sébastien Loeb, Marcus Gronholm and Petter Solberg. Despite retiring on the second Leg, Petter finished the 2005 season in second position in the drivers' championship, continuing the record of Subaru World Rally Team drivers finishing in the top two since 1999.

Subaru World Rally Technical Director, David Lapworth: Of course it's going to take a while to get over the disappointment of Petter's retirement yesterday, as well as Chris's bad luck on Friday, but we got some consolation with Chris's excellent fight back today. Both our drivers have delivered excellent performances this weekend and we end the season in excellent shape, well motivated and ready to start all over again in January.

Chris Atkinson: It's been an interesting rally, one with some highs and lows, but considering how much time we lost on Friday, to finish fourth today feels incredible! I pushed as hard as I could today and we so nearly caught Stohl, but to close the gap from almost 50 seconds to five shows we did a good job and I'm extremely happy. I want to say thanks to all the guys in the team for their hard work, they did a fantastic job and thanks too to all the supporters on the stages, it was great to see you all rooting for us! Of course it's satisfying to finish our first WRC season on a high, but in fact I think we've been able to take something positive from all of the rallies this year. Together Glenn and I have learned so much and I can't wait to get back out on the stages again next season.