"There's a little pressure, but I felt pressure in Rallye Monte Carlo and had a good result there. This is the first rally that I'm really thinking I have to win if I want to fight for the drivers' title."
Jari-Matti Latvala meanwhile will be out to bounce back in Sweden after a pretty disastrous debut on the Monte.
Jari struggled on the opening round following an off on the very first stage. Furthermore while he finished, he had to settle for 12th place overall having lost more time on day 3 after hitting a rock and damaging the suspension on his Focus RS WRC car.
The Swedish Rally however should definitely suit him a bit more and while this will only be his fourth outing on it, he has lots of experience on snow and the 22-year-old should be a strong contender for a top five finish. His only wish is that there is lots of snow and ice.
"A proper winter rally is great fun," he noted. "I've driven many snow rallies and the feeling of driving fast in winter is one that I really enjoy.
"The conditions are more forgiving and the car spends more time sideways than on a gravel rally, because that style helps to get the car to turn into bends."
Asked what it is like when temperatures are milder and the snowbanks are smaller, he added that it not so enjoyable.
"It's not so easy when the conditions aren’t so good. A lack of snow isn't too much of a problem but if there is no ice and the gravel comes through the surface, then it can rip out the studs from the tyres and destroy them. Where the lack of snow becomes a problem is if a driver needs to use the snowbanks," he explained.
"If you carry too much speed into a bend you can lean into the snow banks to guide the car round the corner.
"But if they are small and soft, when the rear of the car hits the bank it can drag the front in as well. It's important to keep the front wheels turned away from the bank to avoid that."
Subaru WRT:
[
Petter Solberg, car #5 and
Chris Atkinson, car #6]
Petter to push as hard as he can.
Petter Solberg has said that he is going to go for it in Sweden. The Norwegian, who grew up driving cars on the tundra of his homeland, has ample experience of the Karlstad-based round and since his WRC debut in 1998 has only missed it once.
