‘Hollywood’ took part in a four-day test in Huelva province, south-western Spain, prior to heading for Leon for the fourth round in the 2007
FIA World Rally Championship and the Norwegian was left impressed with the new car.
“We had a very good test in Spain and found some interesting developments with the car. It seems to have good traction and my feeling is that there are many areas where we have taken a step forward from last year,” he confirmed. “We may still have a few areas to work on but that is something we can do during Rally Mexico or at the next test.”
Despite that optimism though, he isn’t getting too carried away and he is keen to see how they perform relative to their key rivals - Ford and Citroen: “I feel quite happy with the preparation we have done for this rally, but we won’t know until the start how we compare with the other teams,” he warned.
As for the event itself, Rally Mexico has been a fruitful one for Petter - he won there in 2005, finished second last year and finished fourth on the inaugural Rally Mexico back in 2004. Unsurprisingly then, it is one he is looking forward to for a number of reasons and all-in-all he will be determined to add to his eight point tally.
“It’s a rally we like a lot: I have always gone quite well there,” he continued. “Hopefully this event is going to be the start of a new phase for team and we just have to build it up from Mexico for the rest of the season [the remaining 12 events].”
Solberg’s team-mate,
Chris Atkinson meanwhile is keen to score points again, after missing out in Norway. Furthermore after finishing seventh in Mexico last year, he will be eager to do better this time out.
"It’s going to be interesting to tackle the first proper gravel rally of the season, especially now that we’ve got the new car as well. We’ve been in the points in Mexico before and that’s certainly the aim again this year," he noted. "However we’ll only be able to predict our overall performance level when we see where the improvements of our new car put us in relation to the other teams."
Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally team:
[
Jari-Matti Latvala, car #9 and
Henning Solberg, car #10]
Henning Solberg has said that he has ‘no intention of trying to rush things’ in this weekend.
Henning now sits fourth in the drivers’ championship, following his third place finish in Norway three weeks ago, and while that result was a big boost, the Rally Mexico will be his first competitive outing with the 2006 spec Focus RS WRC on gravel.
