PARIS, FRANCE - SUZUKI became the second Japanese motorsport giant to withdraw from a motor racing discipline on Monday after announcing they would not compete in the 2009 world rally championship largely because of the present financial crisis.

The decision follows a disappointing season in which they finished fifth out of six in the constructors championship and after Honda announced they were withdrawing from Formula One.

In a statement published on its website Suzuki said they foresaw the financial crisis as a long term problem rather than a short term one.

'In responding to the contraction of the automotive sales caused by recent global economic turmoil, Suzuki has been promptly taking possible countermeasures including the reassessment of its global production output,' read the statement.

'The company, however, foresees the shrinking trend in longer periods of time rather than a short-term phenomenon.

'To secure its own business environment for tomorrow, the organisation reviews every aspect of the operations and decided to focus on the core business functions such as the manufacturing system, environment technologies, and development of new-generation powertrains.

'As a result, Suzuki concluded to suspend the WRC activities from 2009.'

Suzuki had their best combined result of the season in the final race, the Rally of Great Britain earlier this month, with PG Andersson finishing fifth and Toni Gardemeister seventh.

However, Suzuki have always struggled on account of inadequate funding into development of the car since they made their debut in the 2007 Rally of Corsica.